Rewriting Time
by Aelaer
Summary: COMPLETE! Something is terribly wrong; the events at the end of the Third Age are different than how they were meant to be. Old friends come together and try to correct the problem before history becomes rewritten permanently. Sequel to The Writer's Mind.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Rewriting Time  
Author: Ainu Laire  
Rating: T, PG-13  
Genre: Action/Adventure, Humor  
Summary: Something has gone terribly wrong, and the events at the end of the Third Age are different than how they were meant to be. Old and new friends come together and try to correct the problem before history becomes rewritten permanently. Sequel to 'The Writer's Mind'.  
A/N: CURSE THESE PLOT BUNNIES!

Right. Well, here's the sequel. Updates will come... whenever I remember. I am not an expert on Middle-earth geography, nor travel speeds, but I try to keep to it as much as possible. If you spot a mistake, please inform me!

**July 2008: Yes, I got back to this. I finished it and the rest will be posted soon. I started this when I was much younger, so the writing quality may not be what you see in my more recent writings.**

When I started this so many years ago, I asked for people in one of my Yahoo groups to volunteer their names, looks, and a little bit of their personality for this story. They all became Brittany's friends. Most of those who helped are grown up now and most have left the fandom, but I feel that now I should acknowledge them. Thank you all for your small input and, of course, your names to help me make the OCs. Naturally as only small parts of their personality are incorporated, a lot of it I made up myself. Special thanks to Lena, an older woman in the fandom who lent me her name and let me change her personality drastically.

Mandy and Brittany are completely my own creation. The OCs not mentioned above are completely my own, names included. And, of course, the canon characters belong to Tolkien.

* * *

Chapter One

"Up on your feet, tark!"

Aragorn groaned as he felt a foot connect with his abdomen, and he slowly got to his feet. The orc who had kicked him grew impatient and pulled him up by his hair. Aragorn gave the foul beast a glare, and it merely spat at the man and walked away.

He looked to Legolas, who was also on his feet. The elf did not look good at all. He had a nasty gash on his arm that had just stopped bleeding a few hours ago; however, it was dirty and if it wasn't cleaned it would soon become infected. He also saw that the elf had a slight limp, even though it was unnoticeable to the untrained eye. Of course, if he told him all of his concerns, Legolas would only raise an eyebrow and probably say something akin to: 'You are not looking well yourself.'

'_And of course, he would be right_,' thought Aragorn with a small sigh. Indeed, his head was still throbbing from the numerous blows that had brought him down in the first place, and his shoulder and chest were burning.

As the two marched south, Aragorn let his mind wander… back to only a day ago. Only a day. It seemed so much longer than a day. Who would have thought that so much can go wrong in one day?

The Fellowship had reached Amon Hen, just as planned. There, they discussed where they would head next… where the Ring would go. He had promised that he would go with Boromir to Minas Tirith, but now that Gandalf was gone, he had become the unexpected leader of the Company; was it not his duty to stay with the Ringbearer?

Then the Ringbearer had requested an hour for himself; of course he granted it, for this decision was a heavy burden for anyone to decide. Well, maybe his permission had saved Frodo's life… he dearly hoped so.

For after Frodo left, Legolas had suddenly tensed. He had barely time to shout a warning when orcs came through the trees, weapons raised. Neither he nor Legolas have any idea how they came unnoticed by anyone; they could only assume that some type of black magic had blocked the Enemy from their senses until it too late.

Aragorn had sent the hobbits and Boromir to Frodo, and though all were loath to leave them, they did, realizing that they needed to protect the Ringbearer. Legolas, Gimli, and he had fought the enemy long and hard, and many fell at their feet.

But then Gimli fell. He still did not know if the stout dwarf survived the blow, but his fall proved their downfall.

Legolas had cried in fury and his actions were fast and relentless, yet not precise. His only concern was to get to his friend. Because he was distracted by the dwarf's body, though, an orc managed to sneak upon him and bring him down. Once he was down, it was but a moment before Aragorn had fallen as well.

And now two of the three warriors were the orc's captives. He did not know why Gimli was not with them, or why they were taken in the first place… all he knew is that they were heading south. Towards Mordor.

They kept a slow jog the whole night, as orcs were strongest when the sun was down. The beasts used their whips if either of their captives slowed down. They followed the river and their course never strayed away from it. Soon they would come to Nindalf, a large marshland on the shores of the Anduin. If they were making straight for the Black Gate, then their captors would most likely drive them southeast for a time, between the Nindalf and Dead Marshes. If they continued at this pace, they would reach the Morannon in a few days.

Once dawn came the orcs stopped and both man and elf were relieved, for they were exhausted. Too weary to see to the other's well being, both collapsed and fell to an uneasy sleep.

O0O0O0O

Mandy sunk down into her bed after a hard day at work. Well, not exactly hard… but tedious. And tedious work makes one very tired.

After coming back into the real world, the Heads had bought a small box company; it was relatively cheap, and the owner was quite anxious to get rid of the dump. They bought it mostly because it had enough storage area to store all of their old stuff, which included all of the computers in the Main Control Room and the Head's Office. Once back in the real world, they had reconnected everything so all of the writers could get their material back that was stored on the computers from the Head's Office and promptly put it up on the internet. The main controls itself helped run the place and keep down costs, so it remained operating.

Mandy turned off her bedside lamp. Even though life in Rivendell had been hectic, she missed it. Working in a box company was not very fun. Indeed, it was quite boring. But as the Heads still paid very well and she had pretty much nowhere else to go, there she stayed and worked.

She soon fell into a deep sleep.

When one falls into a deep sleep, their mind is either completely blank or very vivid. Seeing as Mandy was not the most interesting nor most creative person, she usually did not dream, and if she did, her dreams were not vivid.

Tonight, however, her dream was very vivid; much more vivid than she would prefer.

She dreamt of Aragorn and Legolas. Never before had she dreamt of them; indeed, she rarely thought of them, as it was a couple years ago since the last time she had saw them. But tonight, she dreamed something that one would see in a very angst-filled fan fic.

The two warriors were held captive to a large band of orcs. Legolas looked the same as when she last saw him, naturally; but Aragorn looked slightly older, which probably meant he was at least twenty years older than when she had saw him, seeing how the Dúnedain aged so slowly. They were relentlessly pushed on throughout the night, and in the morning they were so exhausted that they collapsed. Then things started to turn odd.

The scene changed, and Mandy found herself in a large clearing outside a bright pink castle. But not just a bright pink castle, but the bright pink castle that appeared at the edge of Mirkwood way back when. However, it was not Mirkwood that surrounded the clearing, but a different forest; which forest, she did not know. All she knew was that it was somehow much… darker. Even the bright pink looked dark in here. She did not want to be here.

"Mandy?"

She turned around to the sound of her voice, startled. Yet the person who had called it startled her even more.

"Aragorn?"

He was standing at the edge of the clearing near the dark, spooky trees. When he saw it was her, he came over. "Aye. What are you doing here?"

"Well, this is _my_ dream, so shouldn't I be asking you the same thing?"

"But this is my dream."

Mandy frowned. "Wait… so we are both dreaming the same dream at the exact same time?"

Aragorn frowned, and gave a light shrug. "I am not sure." He looked up at the bright pink castle, and then the dark forest surrounding them. "Where are we?"

"I dunno," she replied with a shrug. "I've never seen this forest before. The castle, though, is from that time in Mirkwood when you and Legolas popped in, remember?"

"Aye, I do not think I could forget that."

She nodded. "So… um… how's life?"

His face turned grim. "Not well."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Legolas and I have been captured by orcs, and we head towards Mordor."

Mandy, to his surprise, grinned. "Aw, don't worry. I mean, you'll get out. You've got plans and all in your future. You'll be saved by someone, I'm sure. Maybe Gandalf or something."

Aragorn's face suddenly became remorse. "Nay, not Gandalf," he said quietly. "Gandalf fell."

Mandy frowned. "Fell? When?"

"In Moria."

"By the Balrog?"

Aragorn looked slightly surprised by her knowledge, but remembered that she knew a lot about Middle-earth and its peoples, including their futures. "Aye, the Balrog."

Mandy's frown deepened. "Where are you and the Fellowship in the Quest? Where were you last?"

"With the Fellowship? On the lawn of Parth Galen."

"Parth Galen…?"

"On the shores of the Anduin, at the foot of Amon Hen."

A sudden wave of recognition passed her face, but then she frowned once more. "Wait, wait. You and Legolas have just been captured by orcs, and you just were at Amon Hen…?"

"Yes." He looked at her troubled face. "Is something wrong?"

"Is Boromir dead?" she asked suddenly.

Aragorn shook his head. "To my knowledge, no. I hope not. When I last saw him, he was alive."

"Please, tell me what happened."

He explained to her how the orcs had snuck up upon the Fellowship, and how they were split up. As he ended his tale, her face was very dark and grim, and she shook her head in denial.

"That's impossible…" she muttered. "It's not supposed to happen like this."

"What is wrong?" demanded Aragorn.

She looked up at him, and he saw that she was very troubled. "Aragorn," she started off uncertainly. "It is not supposed to happen like this. Different things are supposed to occur at Amon Hen, all which play an important part in the history of the War of the Ring, and the aftermath. You and Legolas are not supposed to be captured. The Fellowship is not supposed to be split up like it is. And… where was it you were headed off to?"

"Mordor."

"Mordor! That's not supposed to happen, either." She shook her head once more, and then suddenly looked up. "Why were you captured and not killed, anyways?"

Aragorn shook his head. "I know not. I thought the Dark Lord was after the hobbits, as Gollum did reveal to him that the Ring was being carried by a halfling."

"Well," she started, "I can see why Sauron wanted you, being Isildur's heir and everything, but why Legolas? For all he knows, he's just some random elf!"

"I do not know the motives of the Enemy."

"Pity you don't," she muttered under her breath. Speaking up, she said, "Well, motives or no, you and Legolas are not supposed to be captured. Or headed to Mordor, either. But that is all I'm saying on the matter. However, what I want to know is _how_. How is this happening? And why? Who, or what, is doing this?" She sighed deeply, and looked up at Aragorn. "All I can ask of you, Aragorn, is to survive. Survive for as long as possible, and look out for anything out of the ordinary. Make sure Legolas keeps his eyes open too and his spirit high. We don't want to lose him to grief; no, not right now."

"I shall," he said. "But are you saying that our capture is not supposed to happen; that it happens differently?"

"Yea, assuming Tolkien didn't find some history book on failure in the Third Age and decide to change it for his own needs," she added. "But like I said, look out for anything out of the ordinary, and do not get yourself or the elf killed."

"What about yourself?"

"I'll look at some of the main computers; though we are back in our own world, the computers still work, to a limit. Maybe I can find something." She shrugged nonchalantly, and looked once more at the dark forest and the bright pink castle. "So you have no idea what this forest is, or where it is?"

"Nay; it resembles the darkest parts of Mirkwood a bit, but there is a different feel here, something I have never felt before. I cannot really explain," he said with a light frown, looking once more at their surroundings. "What I wonder, though, is how this castle came to be here, and who lives in it. It certainly does not fit well in this setting."

"You're right," Mandy said, looking up at the castle once more. "Do you think it's safe to go inside?"

"I know not. It does not have an evil feel to it, but… it feels… strange."

"Well, it _is_ bright pink," she pointed out. "It's bound to be strange. But I ask again, is it safe to go inside?"

"I do not know," he finally responded. "I believe the question is will you risk it?"

Mandy thought for a moment, and then slowly shook her head. "I will," she said. "After all, this is just a dream. What's the worst that can happen?"

Aragorn was suddenly drawn away from the clearing by a kick to his chest. "Time to go, tark," muttered the orc in his ear as he pulled him up. "We have a long ways to go."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Both elf and man were pushed on as the day before; at the same, tiring speed and generally in the same direction. Aragorn had no chance to tell Legolas about the strange encounter within his dreams, as their captors were sure to keep them separated. He did, however, find time enough to look out for anything out of the ordinary, as Mandy suggested. He saw nor heard anything, yet was not sure if that was a good or bad sign.

The waxing moon had disappeared long ago, so there was only the light of the stars to guide their way in the night. Though the orcs were pleased by the Moon's absence, their two captives were far from happy. Though both were experienced with the Wild, they were also bound and wounded; and thus they stumbled and tripped many a time. The orcs did not let this slow their progress.

An hour before dawn, the forest that they traveled ended, and the large cliffs and mountains on their left ceased to follow them. Ahead, they saw a large, flat land. To the south and east lay miles and miles of wetlands and marshes. To the west was the Anduin, her rivers flowing steadily southward to Minas Tirith, Gondor, and then the sea. It was here that the orcs settled down for the day, for here there was still some shade from the Sun's face at the edge of the forest. Once they went onto open land, they would have to push on very hard to reach an area where Sauron's shadow blocked Her brightness.

Legolas looked at the tired orcs with disgust. If he were alone and healthy, he would have had a chance to escape. As it was, Aragorn was with him, and they were both wounded. Escape would be much more difficult to accomplish. If only he could make his way to him…

He then saw his chance. The orcs were trying to decide who would guard the captives that day. As they argued amongst one another, the elf easily made his way to his friend, who was sitting against a tree and breathing deeply.

"You are exhausted," Legolas pointed out to him in greeting.

Aragorn glanced at him. "Speak for yourself, master elf," he retorted back. "And think not that I haven't seen you limping. You may be able to hide it from our fell captors, but you cannot hide it from me."

"'tis naught," insisted the elf. "It shall heal soon enough."

"Not if we continue like this."

Legolas sighed. "Aye… but what of yourself? Think not that you can avoid your own injuries."

"If I had a chance, I would look after both of our injuries," said Aragorn quietly. "But as it is, I cannot. Besides, it is also naught," he said with a sudden twinkle in his eye, "for if your limp is nothing to be of concern, my bruised ribs are on the same level."

Legolas gave a grim smile. "I suppose we must be thankful for little damage that was done to us."

"Just so we could trek this long, arduous journey," said Aragorn dismally. "But there is something I must tell you," he said suddenly.

"What?"

Aragorn quickly explained to Legolas what he had seen in his dreams last night. For a while, the elf was silent, when he finally said, "Then it is all the better that we are not as wounded as we could be. If what Mandy says is true, then we must escape. Besides," he added, "I'd rather not see Mordor at the moment."

Aragorn gave a small smile. "Neither would I. Indeed, if I had the chance, I think I'd rather just go with Boromir to Minas Tirith, summon an army to destroy these foul beings, and then continue on our Quest."

"And only then," finished off Legolas with an identical smile. "But as that is not the case, we must find some means of escape."

"I would suggest that we do it tonight, mellon nin. To escape on open land will be much more difficult."

"I know that," Legolas sighed. "We just have to keep up our vigilance. As the orcs slumber, we shall keep awake and look for an opening-"

"Hey!" An orc finally saw them together and moved forward. They fell silent as he came upon them. "Chatting, eh?" He pulled up Aragorn by the hair and he did his best not to wince. Legolas' eyes flared, but he remained still. He could not afford to make the orcs angry now. "C'mon, tark!" He roughly pushed the man away, and Legolas was left alone with three guards, who all looked at him with disgust.

"He's awake, now," said one of them. "Wasn't lookin' so fine yesterday, were you, elf?" Legolas remained silent as another joined in the taunting.

"Not so fine at all, were you?" laughed another. "But look, boys! he remains quiet." He then went up into Legolas' face. "Why don't you speak, elf?" He grabbed his jaw and looked the elf in the eyes, undaunted by the cold fire that burned in them. He merely narrowed his eyes. "Listen here, and listen good: you do anything that makes us angry, and the tark will pay. Our master just needs him alive; and 'alive' is such a broad term, don't you think?" Legolas did not respond, but the fire in his eyes became larger.

"Ghâshun!"

The orc holding Legolas suddenly let go and spun around. A larger orc appeared from the crowd; it was obvious that this was the captain. "Let the elf be."

"Just warning him, is all, Thaurkul," spat Ghâshun to his captain. "Elves are tricky beings, after all…"

"That's why you three will be guarding him when the sun shows its accursed face," growled Thaurkul. "You'll wake three others when the sun is at its highest point, and no sooner!" With that, he left the three orcs and their charge.

Thaurkul made his way to the other side of the camp where Krimlug had dragged the tark. Said orc was still there, glaring at the man who sat against the tree. The orc captain noted, with humor, that the man glared defiantly back. It would be fun to break these two… but he could not. His master had plans for them, and he was ordered to bring them alive and generally unspoiled.

'_Though that doesn't mean we can't have our fun with them if they prove to be rebellious, as I'm sure they'll turn out to be_,' he thought with a wicked grin. As he came closer, Krimlug and the tark turned to him. Both glared at him, but his subordinate soon cowered under his fierce look. The tark, however, held a fixed stare.

'_He has a glare like an accursed elf_,' thought Thaurkul with a low growl. He sent Krimlug away to find three orcs to guard the tark, and then turned onto his prisoner.

"You look better than yesterday, tark," growled the captain. "If you take your medicine willingly, you'll be even better," he said with a foul grin.

Aragorn suppressed a shudder. That morning, both he and Legolas had been forced to drink the orc's foul draught. Naturally both had put up a fight, but in the end the burning liquid was forced down their throats. It gave both of them energy to jog, and at times run throughout the night, but he would prefer to eat lembas and drink water for strength.

"Not talking, eh?" Thaurkul said. "You seemed so eager to talk with the elf back there; why will you not talk with me?" Thaurkul grabbed his jaw and narrowed his eyes. "I don't want you talking to him, understand? You'll keep away from the elf."

His prisoner said naught in response, but the orc could tell by his defiant gaze that he would sooner obey a spoilt child. With one last glare, Thaurkul released him and walked away. Three orcs soon came to guard the man.

As the sun started to rise, the orcs sought cover in the shadows of the trees. Soon, they all fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Mandy picked at her salad tiredly. She didn't get any sleep last night. After Aragorn had abruptly left, she herself had woken up and could not fall back asleep. So she spent the rest of the night thinking about her new predicament. Aragorn and Legolas were somehow captured by some orcs and being taken to Sauron when that clearly did not occur in the books or movies. Something was happening, obviously… the thing is, she didn't know what. And she hated when she didn't know about something.

Throwing her uneaten lunch away, she decided to spend the rest of the lunch hour in the basement… where all of the old computers and controls were kept and running. Since she was still the technician, she had access to the basements when most others didn't. Being a technician had some benefits.

She took the elevator to the basement. As the lunch-room was on the third floor of the building, she had a few levels to go through. As the elevator made its way down, another passenger entered on the second floor.

"Hey Lena," she greeted.

"Hello, Mandy," she returned. Lena was one of the only people who used to be with Mandy in that odd alternate universe and worked in the box company. Most that were there were too young to work, actually; and all the others had better things to do than work at a box company. So, one could almost say that Mandy and Lena had a special bond… almost.

"How's life?" Mandy asked her.

Lena shrugged. "Same as ever. Yours?"

Mandy mimicked her. "Eh… normal enough."

"Normal enough? Not just 'normal'?"

Mandy shrugged. She didn't really want to talk about her strange encounter with Aragorn… not yet. Besides, no one other than the girl Brittany knew that she had actually helped Aragorn and Legolas escape… she wasn't quite prepared to reveal that yet.

"Where you off to?" Mandy changed the topic. Lena didn't seem to notice or care.

"Home. I'm getting off early today to write some fan fiction."

Mandy resisted the urge to roll her eyes. The Heads were quite strict with hours and work… except when it came to fan fiction. If you said that you were working on a story involving Aragorn and/or Legolas, they let you off for anywhere from the rest of the day to a month, depending on how much they liked you. Mandy herself would use that excuse, but everyone knew that she didn't write, and if she did, she couldn't write anything good as she didn't have an ounce of writing abilities nor creativity within her.

"Lucky you," muttered Mandy as the elevator stopped at the first floor. Lena got off, and Mandy continued her way down.

She reached the basement and made her way through a bunch of old storage to a inconspicuous door in the back. She took out a key, unlocked it, and went inside.

In this room was all the equipment needed. On the left and right walls were the Main Controls; the controls on the right ran the place, and the controls on the left had all of the old data and functions from the alternate universe stored… only accessible by top personnel, naturally. The wall she faced was home to the Main Computer from the old Head's Office, where once all fan fiction was stored. Now it was just a very large computer for internet usage; and, of course, the Heads came down to play some computer games on it.

She went to the left wall, and looked around at the stored data. Nothing that was supposed to be there was missing. All the things that were _not_ supposed to be there were sent to the 'recycle bin' a long time ago… she chuckled to herself as she remembered the dungeons, the warg cage, the dragon's den, and the bright pink castle that appeared…

She blinked. That same bright pink castle had appeared in her dream last night. But surely that didn't mean anything… after all, it was only a dream.

She mentally slapped herself. It wasn't just a dream. She saw and talked with Aragorn. That pink castle wasn't there just for kicks and giggles. She was sure that it was there for a reason…

But she could not think of one. Sighing in frustration, she went to the Main Computer and decided to go online. Perhaps she could find something on Google… yea. That would work. She could just type in 'bright pink castle and Aragorn and Legolas fan fiction' and it will answer all of her questions. Sure.

Since she didn't have anything to lose by doing that, she did. Naturally, she didn't get anything by it. Did you truly think she would?

She sighed and looked over the results. All that was listed were Aragorn and Legolas fan fiction sites… mostly friendship, angst and slash sites. She rolled her eyes. Didn't these people have anything better to do?

Then she remembered that she helped maintain a Aragorn and Legolas site by the request of the Heads.

Yea, she was a bit of a hypocrite.

But speaking of her site, she decided to check on it. Just to make sure everything was running top-notch; she was a bit of a perfectionist at times.

She clicked on one of the first links on the page and waited patiently for the page to load. Finally, a page turned up. But it was not what she wanted.

"The page cannot be displayed… The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings," she read aloud in disbelief. Her site _never_ went down. Her website _never_ had technical difficulties. She always made sure of that.

Well, she'd fix it. She minimized the page and immediately went to her web page designer to see what the problem was.

Then the popup came up.

'Please type in your password below.'

Password? Password? There was no password needed; this web page program was part of this computer and this computer only, so one could only change the website through this computer. And since the door of the room was always locked, no password was needed.

So why in the world did it now require a password? _She_ didn't add this in. Something strange was going on. And she was going to get to the bottom of it.

She snapped out her cell phone and dialed a number quickly. She started tapping her foot impatiently as it kept on ringing. After the fourth ring, it was finally picked up.

"Good afternoon, ma'am," Mandy started. "I'm in the Control Room, down in the basement… well, ma'am, I _am_ the technician… yes, this is Mandy, not Chelsea… yes, yes… but anyways, ma'am… yes, I did call you for a reason. The website is down… no, no, not the box website, the fan fiction website… yes, it's down… no, I don't know why it's down, that is what I am trying to figure out and fix. But anyways, ma'am, I cannot get into the web page designer program… because it requires a password. What is the password? … You didn't do this? Can you ask… alright, I'll hold." Mandy sighed in frustration. The Heads really needed to communicate with one another better… "Yes, I'm still here. Well? … There was no password protection? Yes, I know that's how it was before, but now… there never was? Well, there is now, ma'am… yes, I'll hold again." She shook her head. No one else had access to these computers except her and the Heads, so one of them must have changed it… they did tend to be a bit scatterbrained at times, though. "Yes, I'm here… are you sure? … well, I cannot get into the web page designer without a password… no, I did not put in password protection. I was assuming one of you did… you didn't. Alright. I'll try and crack the code, then. I don't know how long it will take, though. I'll call you if I make any progress. Good day."

She hung up and leaned tiredly against the large computer. So neither she nor the Heads had put this password protection on the program. That means someone else did. But only she and they had the keys to this room… and the program was only part of this computer. So how was that possible?

She sighed and closed the popup. She would crack the code and fix the site later… for now, she didn't have time to play guessing games.

She went back to the minimized web page and scanned the various results. Though the Heads' site was one of the largest Aragorn and Legolas fan fiction archives on the net, there were others that the readers could go to. Including their main competition.

Mandy, though having no interest in Aragorn and Legolas stories, was part of this competition as well. As the designer, she made the layout for the Heads' website. She did it at topnotch quality, for along with being a perfectionist, she was ever in a contest with the designer of the other website. Mandy decided to check the place, for their designer was very good and always tried to outmatch Mandy in the design and layout of the place. Mandy always tried to be ahead.

She waited patiently for it to load. Then a familiar page came on the screen.

'The page cannot be displayed.'

Alright, this was just odd… two of the largest Aragorn and Legolas fan fiction archives just stop working? A password is required to get onto the web page designer? Crazy dreams about Aragorn and pink castles? But surely, it was just coincidence…

But no. It could not be. Something was egging her at the back of her mind, telling her that something was not right. That she should look at the other places…

She threw logic out of her mind and checked the other results on the Google page.

And each one of them started with five very foreboding words: 'The page cannot be displayed.'

Yes, something was definitely very wrong… for some reason unknown to her, all Aragorn and Legolas fan fiction had disappeared.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

His guards were not doing their job very well. Indeed, they were doing everything but. At the moment, one was almost asleep and the other two were bickering with one another; loud, but not loud enough to awake their sleeping companions.

Aragorn rolled his eyes, and yet blessed his luck. He glanced over to the other side of the camp and looked at Legolas and his guards. Legolas looked at him impassively, but his three guards were near asleep. It was now or never.

Quickly and silently Aragorn worked on his bonds. Though they were tight, he could try and loosen them. Moving his hands back and forth, he kept a close eye on the three orcs near him… even if they didn't pay much attention to him.

After many minutes of trying to loosen his bonds, he finally succeeded and the circulation in his wrist suddenly started again. He bit his lip from crying out and waited for his hands to stop throbbing in pain. He glanced over from his own guards (who were now all dozing off), and looked over to Legolas. The elf also had managed to work his bonds while his inattentive guards dozed away. Now that they were both free, Legolas nodded his head towards the woods. Aragorn hesitated for a moment and looked to his sword, Andúril. It and Legolas' weapons were on the other side of camp… there was no chance of retrieving them. He gave the elf a silent nod, and they both silently crept away from their captors.

They soon met up, and nodded their greetings to one another. Silent, but quick, they made their way north, away from the orcs and away from Mordor.

The two continued like this for about half an hour. But they soon started becoming tired, and slowed. Finally, they exchanged words.

"It looks like the Valar smile upon us, my friend," said Legolas quietly.

"We may be out of the frying pan, but not yet out of the fire," retorted Aragorn. "Wait until we cross the Anduin to count our blessings."

"Always the optimistic one you were."

Aragorn grinned. "Most assuredly." He soon became grim again. "How is your foot?"

"My foot?"

"Do not play me the fool, Legolas. You still limp."

"And you still have a shaky breath," he retorted.

Aragorn shrugged, and then looked at Legolas' arm. "That wound, though, must be cleaned before it becomes infected."

"Not until we are out of the fire," responded the elf, using Aragorn's own words. "But your head wound is not looking well. If someone needs to be tended first, that would be you."

"Not until we are across the Anduin and in safer lands."

Legolas nodded, and they fell silent. As they treaded through the wood, they hid their trail as well as they could in their current condition. The sun reached its highest point, and though it was still winter, the sun felt very hot and uncomfortable on them.

Suddenly, Legolas stopped in his tracks, and listened intently to his surroundings. After a moment, he gave a small curse and looked to Aragorn. "They have discovered our disappearance. I had forgotten that they were to change guard at noon."

Aragorn shook his head and started to fasten his pace. "Then it is a good thing we left when we did. If we waited until after noon, we would have never had a chance with fresh guards."

Legolas nodded, yet retorted, "But if we had left earlier, or had gone quicker, there would be less of a chance of them recapturing us."

"There is no use thinking about what-ifs," said the ranger. "We just need to concentrate on getting as far as possible from the orcs."

Silence replaced their friendly banter, and they increased their pace. Dodging tree and underbrush, they used their skills to move as fast as possible while disturbing little. But they were also wounded and tired, whilst their pursuers were strong and awake. Thus it was just not meant to be.

Soon, Aragorn could hear their loud approach. What disturbed him, however, is that they approached on both the left, the right, and the back. There was no other choice but to run forward.

"Run. Do not stop, even if the other falls," muttered Legolas, partially to himself and partially to Aragorn. With that, he broke into a run, the ranger close behind him.

They ran as fast as they could, keeping their eyes forward; yet their other senses told both of them that the orcs were extremely close and would soon catch them.

Finally, they did. The first few orcs popped up right to their side. Having no weapons, they had no choice but to keep running. However, both were loosing energy fast, and their injuries prohibited them from keeping up the pace for much longer.

Then alas! fate was against Legolas that day, for he did not sense the arrow coming towards him until it was too late.

The arrow struck his leg, and with a cry he fell to the ground. Aragorn heard his cry and spun around. Legolas was about to tell his friend to keep on running, but there was no more time. He saw a couple orcs from the sides take him down to the ground. Though his friend fought, resistance was futile. But of course! Some of these foul creatures were also keeping him down. A small part of his mind told him that though it was impossible to escape this, he still shouldn't give in so easily.

The elf struggled in the foul creature's grasp, kicking and punching anything he could. The orcs soon got tired of his struggle, and one of them brought the hilt of his scimitar to Legolas' fair head. Without so much as a gasp, Legolas fell unconscious.

* * *

Mandy crawled into her bed and turned off her side lamp. The sudden disappearance of all Aragorn and Legolas fan fiction had really troubled her for the rest of that day. Her co-workers noticed it. Her friends noticed it. Heck, even Brittany and her friends noticed it.

Brittany, now a hormone-active girl of fifteen, had lived with Mandy for about two years now. When Mandy had come home, she had discovered that Brittany was actually an orphan that went from foster home to foster home. This was part of the reason why Brittany had left the real world to that alternative world at such a young age. That place was an escape for her and from her miserable reality.

Once Mandy had learned this, she decided to adopt the girl. Once the adoption papers were all signed and all the procedures were completed, Mandy was a single mom. Though sometimes it got hard, in the end the adoption proved great for the both of them. Mandy was much more patient and less cold to those around her, and Brittany was not troubled by living in the real world.

Earlier that day, Brittany and her friend Mari were doing homework together. The school they both went to was a private school that went from the seventh grade all the way to the twelfth grade. So even though Mari was a couple years younger than her friend, they saw each other every day and remained very close. So they were in the living room, doing homework (or at least attempting to) when Mandy got home. They had easily saw that she was distressed about something.

"Hey Mandy, what's wrong?" Brittany had asked. Though Brittany was legally adopted as her child, they had more of a sister-sister relationship than anything else, thus spoke to one another as such.

Mandy had shaken her head and left before the two could ask her more. Brittany, thankfully, took the hint and hadn't asked her again, but Mandy knew that she would ask once more tomorrow. She could not keep that girl's curiosity waiting for long.

Sighing, she tried to fall asleep, but found that she could not. She rolled in her bed from side to side, trying to find a comfortable position. Finally, she fell into a light sleep.

It seemed but moments after she fell asleep that someone was shaking her awake… Brittany. Ugh. She ignored the girl and turned away. However, her disturber didn't seem to take the hint and kept on shaking her.

"Go away. Sleep," muttered Mandy, shaking her hand off of her shoulder.

"Mandy," she whispered… but Mandy was troubled to find that it was not the voice of a girl, but of a man. Her eyes flew wide open, and right above her was… Legolas.

She blinked, and closed her eyes. "Legolas, it's nice to see you and all, but I really need some sleep. So… go away." With that, she turned once more into her covers. It took her but four seconds to realize what she had just seen and said.

The fog in her brain completely disappeared, and she sat up straight in bed, blinking. Legolas was standing at the corner of her bed, looking at her in an odd way. Then she blinked again, and realized that it wasn't 'her bed'. Indeed, it wasn't even her room that she now stared at. Because she was certain that the colors of her bedroom wall were _not _pink.

Pink. She shook her head, rubbed her eyes, and looked again. Yes, still pink. And not just the walls, either. Two pink chairs, a pink table, pink covers for the pink bed she now lay upon… whoever owned the room definitely liked pink.

She looked up back at the elf. He was still staring at her. She frowned.

"Stop staring at me like that. It's unnerving." He just gave a small shrug and looked about the room.

"What is this place?" asked Legolas.

"I was just about to ask you that," responded the young woman, looking around the room again. All the pink was a bit disturbing… pink. She knew that something about that word should remind her of something important… pink. What was so important about pink?

Ah, well, she'd figure it out later. For now, there were more important things to discuss…

"Did Aragorn tell you that he saw me last night?" she asked the elf, who was still staring at his surroundings.

Legolas turned his attention to her and nodded. "Yes, he did. He told me all about it." He paused. "So we are not supposed to be in our current situation, you say?"

Mandy nodded. "Yea. You are not supposed to be with a bunch of orcs. But did you do anything about it? Try to, I don't know, stop them or something?"

"We escaped. Or… at least, we tried."

Mandy groaned. "A failed escape attempt? Great."

The elf gave her a grim smile. "Indeed. But yes, we were on our way to the Anduin when those foul creatures came upon us. I was shot down, and then I saw Aragorn falter and fall. I remember struggling, but then I blacked out. When I awoke, I found myself here, and you asleep."

Mandy nodded. "That's just great, Legolas. So you and Aragorn are probably even more beat up than you were before your escape attempt, and if orcs have any intelligence at all, they will keep a closer eye on both of you. So, in short, another escape attempt is impossible."

Legolas nodded in agreement. "Aye, that is what our situation looks like."

Mandy sighed. First she dreams of a pink castle, and then Aragorn appears, telling of this strange turn of events. Then all Aragorn and Legolas fan fiction disappears, and then she appears in this pink room with Legolas, telling of a failed escape attempt. Some little annoying voice inside of her head was telling her that she was missing something… missing a connection… but what?

Legolas frowned at her troubled look. "Is aught wrong?" he asked.

She shook herself out of her thoughts. "Frankly, yes," she said. "You two are captured by orcs for reasons unknown and headed off into Mordor, while in my world all fan fiction about you two has disappeared and impossible to retrieve! Yes, there is something wrong. Something here is not right."

"Fan fiction? Do you speak of those horrid tales that appeared in Aragorn's and my dreams?"

"Yea, those. They've completely disappeared off the face of the Internet."

Legolas ignored that strange word and focused on the earlier part of her statement. "Disappeared? Is that not a good thing?"

"No! It isn't a good thing!" She paused. "Well, actually, it is a good thing… most of it was truly horrible… but it is _how_ it disappeared that is not a good thing. No genre of stories should suddenly just vanish like that." She looked up at his blank look. "Fan fiction has many genres; angst, parody, h/c, slash… don't ask me to explain. Genres can also be categorized by characters. Frodo and Sam, you and Gimli, and, of course, you and Aragorn. The thing that disturbs me is that only that stories focusing on you and Aragorn disappeared. Nothing else. No stories on hobbits disappeared, nor on other elves and men. Just stories based on you two. And what I can't figure out is why." She sighed and collapsed back in the bed.

Legolas slowly nodded. "I believe I understand what you mean. And you believe that somehow our capture and this sudden disappearance of fan fiction are related?"

Mandy nodded. "Yes. But I don't know_ how_… and it's bugging me. I hate it when I don't know things."

Legolas shook his head. "I do not-"

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Mandy's eyes burst open as the alarm clock woke her up.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Mandy groaned and threw her alarm clock across the room. As it was, it really did nothing other than to stop the annoying beeping noise and make her perfectly clean floor messy.

She sighed and sunk her head into her pillow. She felt exhausted. Because of these strange events these past two nights, she hasn't had any of the peaceful rest that she needs. And frankly, that made her angry. The happy chirping birds outside of her bedroom window didn't make her mood any better, either.

"Shut up!" she yelled at the birds. They ignored her.

She growled under her breath and then sighed. She needed some sleep. But as she had to get to work soon, she couldn't sleep. So… coffee it was.

With a sudden change of mood, she smiled brightly and got out of bed. She put on a robe and her slippers, and headed quickly towards the kitchen, all thoughts of anger, grumpiness, and anything that caused her stress clear from her mind. Coffee always made her very happy.

She got to her kitchen and was surprised to find Brittany at the table, sulking and slowly eating her cereal. After preparing herself a little bit of coffee, she sat down across from the girl, a large mug in her hand.

"What's wrong, Brittany?" Mandy asked, sipping at her coffee. "Why are you up so early? You usually don't get up until 7:30, and it's only 6:45."

Brittany poked a bit more at her cereal, which was now very soggy. "I went to bed early last night."

Mandy looked at her, somewhat surprised. "You didn't go to bed at midnight as you usually do?" She had tried to convince the girl to stop staying up so late when she first adopted her, but soon found that it was useless. She'd fall asleep at her own time, but would always be on time for school… so Mandy just let her do her own thing.

Brittany's frown grew deeper. "Yea. You know why?" She didn't give her a chance to respond. "I had nothing to do! Every single night I read on the computer… you know, fan fiction, right?"

It was as if a light bulb was put right over Mandy's head, and she could have smacked herself. Of course! The girl always read fan fiction late at night… and it was always fan fiction about Aragorn and Legolas. And since it was yesterday afternoon that she had discovered all fan fiction had disappeared, naturally, last night…

"It was all gone! Every Aragorn and Legolas fan fiction site was down! And at the bigger sites that host all types of fan fics, they didn't have anything! Not one Aragorn or Legolas fan fic!" Brittany was now near yelling at her guardian. "Can you believe that! It was as if someone had completely erased all Aragorn and Legolas fan fiction off the face of the Internet!"

Mandy waited for her to cool down. Once she had, the woman took other gulp of her coffee and replied, "I know, Brittany. I discovered this at work yesterday."

"You did?" Brittany asked. "Why didn't you tell me? Is that what was troubling you?"

"Yes, but that was not all-" Mandy began.

"Wait, you run an Aragorn and Legolas site, don't you? You take care of all the technical stuff, right? Why don't you get your site back up so I can at least read a bit?" the teenager demanded.

"Because I couldn't," Mandy said calmly with another sip. Coffee always made her calm and at peace with herself and others. "I tried to access the site, but it required a password, and-" She held up her hand to stop Brittany's next question. "And I called the Heads to ask if there was a password now on the web program, and they said no."

Brittany slowly thought it over. "So… are you saying that it is impossible to read any Aragorn and Legolas fan fiction?"

"For now, at least," Mandy responded. "But that is not all." Quickly she summarized the last two nights and her strange dreams. Once she was finished, Brittany looked at her, mouth wide open.

"Wait, wait. Slow down here… you're saying that the real Aragorn and Legolas have been captured by orcs _during the Quest_!" She shook her head. "And you've seen the both of them… once outside the pink castle, and once inside of it?"

"Don't make assumptions," Mandy countered. "Just because the room was pink does not mean it was inside of the castle."

"But it was," Brittany argued. "You forget; when you were sending Aragorn and Legolas back home the first time we met them, I had to distract all of those fan fiction readers and writers. Thankfully I found the castle, and we explored it. I remember quite vividly that the bedrooms in there looked exactly like the one that you described in your dream." She frowned. "So… do you think that this disappearance of fan fiction, Aragorn's and Legolas' capture, and the sudden appearance of the pink castle are all connected somehow?"

"I think so," Mandy started somewhat hesitantly. "But I don't know how." She sighed, and got herself another cup of coffee.

Brittany was silent as Mandy did this. Once Mandy sat down again, Brittany started slowly, "Say… you have all the old equipment that you used to send Aragorn and Legolas home, right?" Mandy slowly nodded to that. "And that same equipment was used to _bring_ Aragorn and Legolas to that alternate universe, right?" Mandy nodded slowly again. "So… maybe you can use that equipment to bring them here to Earth?"

"_What_!" she exclaimed and jumped up, nearly spilling her coffee in the process. "Are you kidding me! Brittany, we cannot bring them here!"

"Why not?" she challenged. "It may give them a respite from the orcs and their pains!"

"They came to the alternative universe world when they were asleep, and they are asleep when they come into my dreams. There is absolutely no purpose in bringing them here."

"But you get to see them all the time! I want to see them!"

"Don't be selfish, Brittany."

"Selfish? I'm not the one being selfish! I think you are-"

"BRITTANY!" Mandy yelled, her voice filled with an eerie commanding tone only agitated technicians can have. Brittany's protests died down. "I am not bringing them here. There are too many complications and too many things can go wrong. Plus, there is no point nor purpose as to bringing them to Earth. As it is at the moment, we can try and solve this mystery without their being here, so in Middle-earth they shall remain. Now go get ready for school." Brittany opened her mouth. "NOW, young lady."

With a glare, Brittany left the table and stomped to her room, slamming the door shut. Her poor, soggy, and pretty much uneaten cereal was left at the table, alone and abandoned.

Mandy sat down again, glaring at the innocent cereal bowl. Finally, she sighed and shook her head. '_No_,' she reasoned with herself. '_As much as Brittany wants, we cannot bring them here. There is no point to bringing them here. And as they sleep during the time I sleep, I'd have to be up all night just to look after them… it wouldn't work out. And besides, it may not even work. Sure, it worked between the alternate universe and Middle-earth, but some type of portal between Earth and Middle-earth with no place in between? That's surely impossible._'

She took another sip of her coffee. '_And I think that the answer to this is something connected with that pink castle in our dreams. Maybe something within it, or something outside of it… but I have a feeling that that castle holds the solution to this mystery. But what?_' She sighed again, and wracked her brain for answers. As much as she tried, she could not find anything that could cause Aragorn and Legolas fan fiction in the real world to disappear, Aragorn and Legolas in Middle-earth to be captured by orcs, and her strange dreams.

She stood up and poured herself another cup of coffee. She didn't have time for this. She had to get to work. Then she'd ponder more about this after work… yes, that's what she would do.

Brittany finally came out of her room around twenty minutes after their argument, fully dressed and ready to go. She took the forgotten old cereal still sitting on the table and poured it down the drain.

"You shouldn't waste food like that," Mandy said lightly, pouring herself her last cup of coffee. "I don't waste any of my coffee. You shouldn't waste any cereal."

Brittany just ignored her and poured herself a glass of milk. After gulping it down, she washed out her glass, still ignoring her guardian. After five minutes of this tense silence between then, she finally said, "Remember, my friends are coming over tonight for a sleepover."

Mandy finished her last cup of coffee and frowned. "But tomorrow you have school."

Brittany rolled her eyes. "Today's Friday, remember?"

Mandy nearly sighed in relief. Friday. In all of her stress, she had forgotten it was that blessed day. Ah, Friday! She loved Fridays. They were the next best thing to coffee.

"Alright," answered the woman. "How many, again?"

Brittany shrugged. "Five, I think… Mari, Abs, Becky, Alex, and Summer. Yea, five."

Mandy nodded again. "Good. No more, though. Five of your friends is bad enough as it is." She looked at the time. "Damn it! Only ten minutes left!" She grabbed her keys and hugged Brittany. "Have a good day at school." She rushed for the door.

"Mandy!"

Mandy looked back at her. "What? I'm going to be late!"

"You're still in your PJs."

Mandy let out a string of curses as she rushed into her bedroom.


	6. Chapter 6

Because of rules, and everyone else is doing it, I'm not going to reply to reviews anymore; besides, I only get reviews from two people now, and they already know I love them :-P Well, thanks for reading to all you other folk out there. :-) If you really desperately want a reply (which I doubt, lol), just say so in your review and make sure your email is accessable.

I have edited all the other chapters so the responses don't exist anymore... just in case.

Anyhow, Chappie Six. It's long, and I really had fun writing this chapter, though I have no idea how it will be responded to. I am not an expert at computers, so I was pretty much making up my own stuff when I wrote this chapter. Well, we shall see what happens. I hope you enjoy (and to all my fellow Americans: I hope you had a great 4th of July).

* * *

Chapter Six

The first thing Aragorn noticed when he awoke was that he was on the ground. The second thing he noticed that he was bound. If he weren't so vigilant, he would have probably let out a string of curses. They had been recaptured.

He also noticed that his head was pounding quite badly, and frankly it was giving him a terrible headache. Making sure not to move his head, he tried to focus on the sounds around him. Many yells and grunts, and the sounds of pounding feet he could hear. It was nearly time to go, it seemed… how long had he been unconscious?

Finally, the ranger decided to open his eyes, and saw the trunk of a tree. So they were still on the borders of the forest, it seemed. He highly doubted that the orcs would wait for a whole day for him to wake up, so he assumed that he had been out for only a few hours.

He was suddenly pulled up by his arm from behind by one of his captors. He cursed inwardly to himself for his inattention as he felt his arm nearly being pulled out of its socket.

He was pushed forward to the large group of orcs, which had formed a large circle… well, as much of a circle as orcs can form. In the center was Thaurkul. At one part of the circle he could see Krimlug, Ghâshun, and a couple of other orcs gathered closer to one another, as if hiding something from view. The ranger turned his view from the orcs and looked for his friend, but Legolas was nowhere to be seen. He then concentrated his looks onto the orc captain, his eyes boring into the foul creature's face. Aragorn was stopped about three feet in front of Thaurkul and was forced to his knees. He tried to get back up, but two orcs firmly held him down. During this time, his bright gray eyes never left the orc captain's face.

O0O0O0O

"Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap…" Mandy muttered as she rushed to work. She was late. She was never late. Lateness was just a trait that did not fit her at all. And suddenly, it had burst into her life, alongside all the other strange happenings. At this moment, she wished she had never applied for the job as the technician for those insane fan fiction writers all those years back… then she wouldn't be in this mess. If she had never applied, she wouldn't know diddly-squat about fan fiction. She wouldn't have met Aragorn and Legolas. She wouldn't be working in a box company. She wouldn't be having those God-awful dreams that kept her awake and restless the whole night. And, most importantly, she wouldn't have adopted a bratty little girl that made her late for work!

'_She didn't make you late_,' that little, logical voice in the back of her head insisted.

"Yes she did," she muttered aloud.

'_No, she didn't. She made you rethink the situation a bit, but she did not make you late. You just lost track of time. You were tired._'

"Fine, then. It's Aragorn's and Legolas' fault for invading my dreams and making me lose sleep," she argued back.

'_Or it's the fault of whatever caused the disappearance of fan fiction and their capture._'

"Whatever that is," muttered Mandy grouchily. She then blinked and slammed on her breaks as she nearly sped past the red light. She heard the screeching of many tires, soon followed by loud honks and curses from the car behind her. She honked and yelled out of her window back at them. Once the light turned green, she quickly sped ahead and turned into a narrow alley, out of sight. There, she stopped her car.

The young woman looked straight ahead for a moment before collapsing into her seat. "I'm going insane," she muttered out loud to herself. "I'm not getting any sleep. I'm missing red lights and leaving late for work. I'm having conversations with myself. I am most certainly going insane."

She stayed like this for a moment longer before finally coming to herself. "Well, insane or not, I must get to work. As it is, the Heads are already going to kill me for being this late. I don't want to make them even angrier than they will surely be."

With that in mind, she backed out of the alley and continued on her way to work.

O0O0O0O

Thaurkul walked forward and glared down at the tark. The man simply glared back. The orc captain, infuriated, spat down at his prisoner, but he did not even flinch. He growled. He'd make this man pay for his troubles.

"Did you think you could actually escape, tark?" he spat. "Did you think you could escape my men?"

Aragorn said nothing in response, but his eyes clearly read 'Yes, I thought I had a very good chance.'

Thaurkul growled once more and backhanded the ranger, leaving a bright, red mark on his weather-beaten face. However, he was not cowed, and still continued to pierce the orc's face with his keen gaze. Though the orc would never admit it, it was starting to make him very uncomfortable. There had to be a way to make him grovel on the ground for his mercy… and he knew exactly how.

A large grin splitting his face, Thaurkul turned to a few of the orcs huddled up closer than the others. "Bring him here!"

O0O0O0O

As she raced her car into the parking lot, her cell phone started ringing.

"Yes?" she said abruptly, pulling into a parking space. "Oh, hello ma'am… yes, I realize I'm late. I just pulled up into the parking lot, though… oh… well, yes… ma'am, I told you yesterday that the website was down and that the web page designer required a password… no, I did not put in password protection. I assumed you did… alright, alright, it wasn't either one of you… no, I don't know who did. We are the only three with access to those computers, correct? … alright, alright, just making sure, ma'am!" She turned off the engine, pulled the keys out of the ignition, and stepped out of the car. "Yes, yes, ma'am, I'm going right down there… yes, I'll try and fix the problem right away… yes, yes, I'll call you if there is any progress…" She opened the door and headed straight for the elevator, ignoring all of her coworkers and their waves. "Well, ma'am… yes, I'll hold."

Mandy sighed and rolled her eyes. The Heads could be so infuriating at times… she sighed again as she reached the elevator, and pressed the button for the basement. They were angry at her for being late, but they were mostly angry at her for not fixing the website problem that she encountered yesterday. But what was she to do? She didn't know how the password protection came… she could try to crack it, but it would take ages, and frankly, she didn't have the patience for that at the moment.

"Yes, ma'am, I'm here… ma'am? Are you alright? … oh. Yes, I found that out yesterday…" She held the phone from her ear as the person on the other line started screaming at her. As she waited, the elevator stopped on the floor, and she got in quickly and shut the doors. As the elevator went down, Mandy brought the phone back to her ear. "Ma'am, I thought you knew that all Aragorn and Legolas fan fiction had disappeared, seeing as, well, you always read it… well, ma'am, I'm _sorry_." Mandy was now at the breaking point. It was not her job to inform the Heads of every single occurrence in the fan fiction world! And all their favorite fan fiction disappearing was not really that big of a deal, frankly…

And now they were giving her a new job. "Alright, ma'am. I'll look through the old archives in those old computers and see if I can find any fan fiction for you to read," she said, rolling her eyes. Selfish gits… "Yes, yes, and afterwards I'll fix the website problem. Yes, I will. Oh, look, I'm here ma'am, I must go, good bye!" She quickly turned off her cell phone and resisted the urge to scream in frustration. She really didn't need this.

O0O0O0O

Aragorn paled as he saw Krimlug, Ghâshun, and the other orcs separate from one another and uncover what they were hiding… Legolas. Krimlug and Ghâshun then grabbed the elf by the arms and dragged him closer towards Aragorn. They dropped him about five feet away from him, and the ranger once more tried to get up, but was once more held down. The two orcs themselves stood near their captain, obvious glee in their hideous faces.

The elf was lying in a crumpled heap on the ground and was obviously unconscious. He was badly scratched and bruised, and Aragorn could see that the arrow that had originally brought him down was gone. He highly doubted that the orcs had done it gently, either.

Thaurkul smirked when he saw the tark's face pale at the elf's state. His men had not been kind when they had caught the elf… and as he had woken up much earlier than the man, they naturally had demanded that he paid for their troubles right there and then. And who was he to refuse, when the elf had caused so much trouble? Besides, he had enjoyed it greatly when the elf had finally screamed when the arrow was torn from his flesh… it was most satisfying. It was a pity, though, that the man did not awaken to his screams… but seeing the look on the tark's face right now nearly made up for it.

Aragorn finally shifted his gaze from his friend to the orc, his gray eyes burning with fury. "You shall pay for this, you foul beast!" he spat, former caution and wariness evaporating in his anger. One of the orcs holding him harshly slapped the back of his head, and the ranger would have fallen forward if not for the strong grip holding him to his knees.

Thaurkul just merely looked amused. "He paid for his disobedience, tark," he said. "As shall you."

O0O0O0O

Mandy opened the door to the Control Room and headed over to the left computer, where everything that had to do with the alternate universe was stored. Naturally, that also included all of the fan fiction written in that old replica of Rivendell, which was transferred from the Main Computer when they had moved back to earth. Of course, there was a copy of all that fan fiction, and much more in the web design program, but as that was inaccessible at the moment, the old archives would have to do.

She typed in a few commands and waited for the results to pop up. What she found she did not expect.

Empty. The archives were completely empty. Staying calm, she simply went to the 'recycle bin' and looked around it.

There were plenty of things in there… but no stories. Absolutely no stories. She scrolled through all of the results again, and there were certainly no stories. As she scrolled through another time, she noticed something else… the pink castle was gone.

No. That was not possible. She scanned through the results a fourth time, and was distraught to find no stories, and, even worse, that the pink castle, the dungeons, the warg cage, and the dragon's den, everything that was added onto Rivendell by that security guard who had messed with the coordinates so long ago, gone.

'_Do not panic_,' she thought to herself. Taking a deep breath, she left the 'recycle bin', typed in a long, complicated code out, and started to search through the whole entire database.

Then the computer shut itself down.

O0O0O0O

Aragorn was about to retort when the world suddenly started to spin… literally. It did not spin as if he had just hit his head hard against something, but started revolving around in a circle. The orcs, the trees, the ground, the sky… it all started flipping around in different directions, rotating as if it were a wheel, and yet he did not rotate with it. It was possibly the oddest and yet most frightening thing he had ever seen in his life.

The revolving world was making himself extremely dizzy, so he closed his eyes. After waiting for a moment, he opened them again, and the world was still and normal. He blinked a couple times, wondering where that odd sensation had come from, and why to him… indeed, it seemed that his captors did not notice anything at all.

Aragorn shook himself out of his thoughts and then looked back at the orc captain. He had to stop himself from gasping aloud, though, when he saw that there was something obviously different with him… and, indeed, the rest of the orcs! It was not their looks nor attire… indeed, it was their eyes. Something was oddly different about their eyes… yet he had no idea what. It was almost as if the orc captain was… older. Much older and wiser. As for the other orcs… they looked almost…

'_Stupider_,' was the first word that came to his mind. '_Even less intelligent than before. But how in the world…?_'

The ranger was soon to find out, though, that those were not the only changes.

The orc called Krimlug stepped up and looked to the captain. "So, boss, whaddya wanna do with 'im, eh? Whaddya wanna do, boss, whaddya wanna do?"

Aragorn blinked a couple times. Did they give him some poison some time when he was unconscious? Did he really just hear that orc speak in some strange, high voice and call the captain 'boss'?

"Shh, quiet kid, I'm thinking, I'm thinking," said Thaurkul in a very low, calm, almost gentle voice.

"Yea, don't disturb the boss while 'e's thinkin'!" said one of the other orcs in the circle with that strange accent Krimlug had spoken in.

"Yea yea," Krimlug nodded. "I wasn' doin' nothin'."

Aragorn wished he had his hands free so he could pinch himself. Hard. What in Elbereth's name was going on? Was this some type of cruel joke? Was he poisoned? Did all of Middle-earth lose their minds? He honestly did not know, and all he could do is stare at the orcs' sudden change in demeanor and speech.

O0O0O0O

"What the hell!" Mandy yelled out as the computer shut down. Frantically she checked the wires at the back. Nothing. As she went to turn it back on, the large computer suddenly restarted. She slightly jumped at the unexpected noise, but then concentrated on the screen. Once restarted, everything looked normal again. But something told her something was not right.

Taking a deep breath, she went once more into the 'recycle bin'. Just as she expected, nothing that she looked for showed up. She took another deep breath, and tried once more to look through the whole entire database.

To her horror, everything was jumbled up and not where they were supposed to be. Codes, configurations, and database files were all mixed up. As she tried sorting through them, the screen suddenly started scrolling rapidly. And then the computer shut itself off again.

O0O0O0O

This strange scene continued for about a minute more when suddenly the world spun and revolved again, exactly the same way like the first time. Aragorn closed his eyes again once more, and after a few long seconds, opened them again. The orcs were silent and not chattering in that weird, silly way. They looked normal again… until Aragorn once more looked into all of their eyes. They had the same level of intelligence as they usually did, but there was something different in their eyes… something almost… childlike?

Suddenly, Thaurkul clapped his hands together and put on a bright grin, which really looks quite terrifying on an orc. "Right!" he said in a high, happy voice. "Who wants to punish the tark?"

When orcs are granted permission to harm others when they are usually not allowed to, they start to grin and whisper evil words to another while slowly approaching the unlucky soul. This time, however, it was different.

"Me me me me me me!" the orcs started shouting excitedly, jumping up and down and raising their hand in a very odd manner.

Aragorn stared at them in shock. He thought that normal orcs were bad. Then he encountered that strange behavior a moment ago, and thought it worse. This, however… this topped it all. It couldn't possibly get any more eerie than this.

Thaurkul then shushed them, and pointed his finger at one of them. Aragorn thought this would be his tormentor. He was soon proven wrong.

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a tarky by the toe…" started Thaurkul, pointing to a different orc at every syllable. Aragorn blinked and stared. "If he hollers, hurt him more, eeny, meeny, miny… moe!" His finger stopped on some random orc in the circle, and the said orc started jumping up and down in excitement as if it were a little boy. The other orcs started clapping for his success.

Aragorn shook his head. He had gone mad. He had most certainly gone mad.

O0O0O0O

Mandy cursed as the computer shut itself off once more. She really did not need this right now. _Really_ did not need this.

She groaned. All she was trying to do was access some bloody fan fiction! Why was it impossible to simply get some fan fiction for the Heads to enjoy so they could leave her at peace?

She took in a deep breath, and calmed herself down. She needed to think… now, should she try again? The stubborn part of her said that she should, but that annoying small voice in the back of her head insisted that it would be futile. There was no accessing Aragorn and Legolas fan fiction at the current time.

She ignored that voice and turned on the computer once more. After all, three times was a charm.

It loaded and the main screen came up. She went once more into deep inside the database, and found that the codes were still mixed up. As slowly as she could while still making progress, she rearranged all of the codes back to their original settings. Thankfully, this time the controls did not go completely whack on her.

O0O0O0O

When the world spun about for the third time, Aragorn quickly closed his eyes and held them tightly shut for a long time. At this point, he desperately wished for the normal orcs back. Those happy-go-lucky, childish orcs would give him nightmares for the rest of his days. He could handle normal orcs. He could not handle the madness that was right before his eyes.

Finally, he opened them again, and looked into Thaurkul's eyes. To his immense relief, they were the normal, cruel orcish eyes that he was used to. He felt as if he could grin in his delight at this normality.

He probably would have grinned if at that moment he hadn't felt the whip fall right across his back. He was surprised by this sudden burst of pain, but managed to hold his tongue. He was also surprised by the fact that he had actually fallen forward from the impact… he assumed that the two orcs that were keeping him down had finally released their hold. He was surprised that he had failed to notice that change. Overall, he was just very, very surprised.

As he managed to get himself halfway up, the whip fell again. Still, he managed to not fall down again and continued to get himself up. The orc that was whipping him obviously did not like this show of resistance, so he let his whip fall thrice upon the ranger's back. The third time, Aragorn finally fell once more, and all the orcs gathered burst into their cruel laughter. The whip fell many a time more, in repetitionsclose enough so the ranger could not get up again, yet far enough so he could feel the biting sting of each cut to its full extent.

As Aragorn lay on the ground, he realized that his hands were still tied behind his back… which would explain why it was so difficult to get off the ground, not to mention the pain and burning sensation in his arms. But perhaps if the whip fell enough times, it would cut the rope binding him, and then he could make a stand.

But fate seemed to have something against Isildur's heir, for even as he thought that, the orcs got tired of just standing around and watching the whip fall and decided to beat him instead. And if orcs know one thing, it would be beating a defenseless being.

As Aragorn finally surrendered to unconsciousness, he idly wondered if those stupid accented or even childish orcs were all that bad.

O0O0O0O

After she reorganized the database to the best of her abilities, she realized that the stories were actually there… she had passed many of them while going through the slow, tedious process. Now that she was done with that, she decided to go and finally fetch a couple of stories for the Heads.

She typed in a relatively simple code, and waited. Finally, a couple of the stories popped up, and shewhooped in success.

Then the power went out.


	7. Chapter 7

A very nice, long chapter -smiles- I am going to San Diego for the Comic Convention, so I won't be here for a few days. Also, my family is fostering three Colombian orphans, so naturally they also have been taking a lot of my time as well. I hope to finish this fic before summer's end, but there are no guarenteees. Reviews motivate me, though. Hehe.

Hope you enjoy this chapter.

* * *

Chapter Seven

Mandy let out a curse when all of the lights went out and all of the computers suddenly turned off. Power outages. She hated power outages. They were possibly the most bothersome thing on the face of the earth. That and bad drivers. And coffee haters. People who did not like coffee needed to get their minds examined.

She shook herself out of her strange thoughts and slowly turned around. If she had just been facing the computer that held all of the old alternate universe coordinates and fan fiction data, then now she should be facing the controls that ran the place. And as the technician, it would be her job to make sure everything was running smoothly after the power came back on. Mandy turned herself fully and then leaned against the warm metal of the computer, facing the blackness that she knew held the controls. Once the power came back, she'd look at it.

The young woman glanced back at the computer she had just been working on, even though it was so dark that she could not see it. She wondered if her messing with it and trying to access fan fiction had anything to do with the power outage… she blinked. That was impossible. The computer was not even connected with the other computers; it was on its own network. Besides, it had already shut down twice before this; the computer problems and the black out were probably just coincidence.

'_Was it coincidence that you were very close to accessing Aragorn and Legolas fan fiction at that exact same moment as well?_' said that small, annoying voice in the back of her head. '_And was it coincidence that the computer shut itself off when you were close to finding… information?_'

She shook her head and pushed the small voice out of her mind. It was impossible. Besides, what information? All she had discovered is that the pink castle and all those other odd places were gone. So what?

Before that small, annoying voice could retaliate with illogical logic, Mandy tensed. She heard something… yes. She heard breathing. Breathing that was not her own.

She grasped the edges of the computer and tried to calm her pounding heart down. Alright, she hadn't heard the door open or close, nor anyone enter. Another person is suddenly in the room. Surely there was a logical explanation for this… yes. She had it. She was simply imagining the breathing, or the breathing was her own. She was so disoriented from these past days that it was making her slightly nervous and jumpy… and, of course, imaginative. Yes, that was exactly was what wrong.

Absorbing those thoughts in, Mandy suddenly felt a bit better and a bit more confident and decided to wait over by the main controls for the building so she could get to work right away.

As she took her second step, she suddenly tripped over something and fell to the ground. That 'something' was large, warm, and most certainly alive. And that said something jolted forward when she tripped, grabbed her arm, tore it behind her back, and pushed her down to the cold ground within two seconds. She tried to struggle against her assailant's grasp, but he- for the person was certainly a he- was much stronger than the young woman.

Mandy felt like whimpering. This was definitely not her imagination playing tricks on her. Some stranger had somehow sneaked in during the power outage and now had her at a very uncomfortable position. She wished she could see her captor so she could report him later; for men that snuck into basements and grabbed oblivious women in the dark certainly meant no good.

Fate finally seemed to feel pity for her, because her wishes were answered and the lights finally flickered on.

Her captor gasped and quickly let her go when the room was suddenly filled with light. She slowly got herself off, and her former assailant quickly assisted her. When she faced him, she openly stared, as did he. The man finally regained his voice.

"Mandy?" he asked.

"Was I knocked out or something when I fell?" she answered back, "Because, you know, you only appear in my dreams…"

"I know that I am unconscious. Or, was… I am not exactly sure."

She shook her head mutely. "I don't think I am… yea, I am not sleeping right now, nor am I unconscious… I just know I'm not."

"But… does that mean that I am in… your world?"

Mandy was still for a moment, and then gave a hesitant nod. "I'm not sure what happened… but somehow… somehow you are here." She gave an awkward smile. "Welcome to Earth, Aragorn."

O0O0O0O

Brittany unlocked the door to the house and let her friends inside. It had been a minimum day at school; for what reason the students were still unsure about. However, it really didn't matter to them. After all, they were still out of school. Who cared about the reasons?

Her friends rushed off to her room as she shut and locked the door. Mandy still wouldn't be home for a few hours, at the least; she usually ate her lunch at work. So for now, the house was theirs.

Brittany rushed down the hall and went into her room where her friends were gathered. Mari was currently on the computer, checking for fan fiction updates, while Summer was looking right over her shoulder. The two were so alike with brown hair, lanky bodies, and personalities so odd that they could rival Michael Jackson that it was a wonder they weren't twins, or even siblings. Becky was currently staring at her wall and drooling over her Legolas poster, as she _always_ did when she came over. Alex and Abs were jumping up and down on the bed. Though they were very different from one another, they were very good friends. All in all, it was a wild party in Brittany's bedroom.

Brittany jumped as Summer let out an angry yell.

"Brittany, your comp isn't working! We can't get onto that Aragorn fan fic site!" she whined.

The conversation that she had had with Mandy that morning suddenly came back to her; she had completely forgotten about it. "It's not my computer," she said. "All Aragorn and Legolas fan fiction sites are down. Mandy told me so this morning."

Five pairs of eyes turned to stare at her.

"Are you kidding me?" Alex demanded. "That can't be possible!"

"I already tried to read some last night. Every site is down," Brittany insisted.

"Then what are we going to do!" Becky said in horror. "I mean, I was planning on showing you guys this awesome Legolas fic with a whole load of angst-"

"Who cares about Legolas?" shot out Summer. "What about Aragorn! I _need_ Aragorn! I'm going to go into some, like… Aragorn deprivation period or something!"

"Legolas or Aragorn, it doesn't matter!" Mari shouted out over Summer's voice. "We don't have any fan fiction to read late at night! This is just… terrible!"

"Wait!" said Abs with a grin. "Guys, we can still watch the movies, play the board games, and, of course, drool over pictures!"

Alex's eyes shone. "There is still hope!" she quoted.

"You're brilliant, Abs!" Brittany said with a grin. "So, then, change of plans. We'll watch the movies instead-"

"Extended Editions!" Summer shouted out. "All three!"

"Twelve hours of LOTR goodness," Mari said happily.

"I'll go get some popcorn and snacks from the kitchen!" Abs jumped up off the bed and skipped out of the bedroom while the five others started debating about who was better: Aragorn or Legolas.

'_Aragorn, of course_,' thought Abs to herself as she skipped down the hall and into the kitchen. '_Much better than Legolas… especially in angst fics… yum._' She found herself in the kitchen and then opened the cupboards, looking around for cookies, chips, and everything considered good for watching a movie. She hummed some commercial tune as she did this.

Laden with unhealthy snacks, the fourteen-year-old girl was prepared to leave the kitchen when she realized that she needed soda, which was another essential in movie-watching.

Putting all the food down on the counter, she went to the fridge and looked for some soda. Suddenly, she heard one of the chip bags being handled by someone.

"Don't eat the chips yet!" she yelled to the person, not bothering to look up. "And stay there, would you? I'll need some help carrying all this food to Britt's room." She grabbed a six-pack of soda, straightened herself and closed the fridge. She turned around to see who was her assistant, and nearly dropped the six-pack in surprise.

Holding a bag of Ruffles and looking somewhat confused was a very familiar-looking man. Or, perhaps it would be more appropriate to say 'elf'. For in Brittany's kitchen was Legolas in all his elven glory.

Abs openly stared at him, and he stared back. This continued for perhaps three and a half more seconds when Legolas broke the silence with two simple questions.

"Who are you? Where am I?"

Abs blinked, and shook herself. "Are you really Legolas?" she asked, dumbfounded.

He was silent for a moment and studied her for a bit, as if he were trying to determine if she were a threat. Finally, he replied, "I am."

"Oh," Abs said, still dumbfounded. "Alright… umm…" There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment. Finally, she shouted out, "Brittany! Can you please come here?"

"Coming!" Brittany shouted from her bedroom, and both girl and elf could hear her jog down the hallway and into the kitchen. When Brittany reached the kitchen, she stopped and stared openly at Legolas. She broke out of her dumbfounded moment in a shorter amount of time than Abs, and then asked, "Legolas? What are you doing here?"

A sudden look of recognition passed Legolas' face. "Brittany?"

"Yea, it's me," she replied, still looking at Legolas with wider eyes than normal. "But you didn't answer my question; what are you doing here?"

"I am not sure," he replied. "Last I remember is falling unconscious in the presence of many orcs. I woke up here but a moment ago."

Abs watched this conversation with wide eyes. She realized that Legolas and Brittany spoke as if they were old companions, and was extremely confused. "Wait, wait," she said, turning to her friend. "You _know_ him?"

"Yea," her friend replied. "It's a long story, but we have met once before."

Abs blinked, and then went over to her friend. "Wait, wait, wait," she said. "You _know_ Legolas Greenleaf! You've met him before? And you never told me!"

"It was before I was adopted by Mandy!" Brittany exclaimed. "It was a thing of the past. I didn't think I'd see him again! Besides," she added, "would you have actually believed me?"

"Well, probably not-"

"Exactly." She turned back to Legolas. "Mandy told me about what happened to you and Aragorn this morning. So you were beat up by the orcs for trying to escape, hmm?"

Legolas nodded in confirmation. "Also, Mandy told me about the disappearance of… of fan fiction," Legolas added.

"You know about fan fiction?" Abs interrupted. "How is that possible? And what is this talk about orcs, and Mandy knowing stuff? Brittany, what's going on?"

"I'll explain later," Brittany said. "I think our main concern right now is how we are going to break this to the others without them going absolutely nuts."

"Summer and Alex we don't have to worry about," said Abs. "Mari… I'm not sure. But Becky… she'll go insane." Both girls glanced at Legolas with apprehension written all across their faces.

O0O0O0O

"Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap…" Mandy muttered to herself for the second time that day, pacing the small room back and forth. Aragorn looked at her with a bit of concern. She suddenly stopped pacing and looked at the ranger. "Alright, alright. We must study the situation. I was messing with the computer, the power goes out, you come here. What were you doing?"

Aragorn grimaced. "I was being tortured for my escape attempt."

A long silence followed.

"Oh," Mandy finally replied. "… well, you seem to be looking well for one who was just tortured."

"Actually, I feel nothing. I do not think that any of my wounds came with me to this world."

"That's odd," muttered Mandy to herself. "So… it is as if this is a different body of yourself, almost? Because if this was just you, and you were not in Middle-earth anymore, I think you would have your wounds. So it is as if you are dreaming there, only instead of coming into my dreams, you are here… most odd. I did not know it worked like that…"

Aragorn thought for a moment. "Well, I do not think Legolas or I ever left our beds when we first went to that replica of Rivendell, nor when we dreamed about those stories. So I would assume that our physical selves always remain where we left them when we fell asleep… or, in my case, fell unconscious. So my body is still with the orcs."

"And shall still be when you wake up," pointed out the young woman. "Speaking of which, how will your being here affect your body in Middle-earth? I mean, will you just remain unconscious there when you are here, or when you wake up there, will you just suddenly disappear or fall to the ground asleep?"

"When I saw you in my dreams, I was taken out of them by being awoken," Aragorn responded. "I know not if that will be the same case here, for the only time I visited another world was when I first met you, and I came back on my own; I was not forced by some outside input."

"I guess we will just have to wait and see, then," said Mandy with a sigh. "Gah. I hate waiting. Oh well…" She thought for a moment once more. "Well, I assume you'll be here for at least a few hours, if time runs the same there as it does here… because, you know, you were tortured and everything-"

"I understand you," said Aragorn wryly.

"Ok, ok," Mandy said. "So you'll be here a few hours. But nevertheless, we do have a problem…" She looked at her watch. "It is not even noon yet, so there are still many hours until everyone goes home, and I highly doubt you want to stay here for hours. Besides, the longer you stay here, there is more of a chance that we will find out what happens when the orcs come to wake you up. If you do just fall to the ground asleep, you cannot be here. I need to get you out of here, somehow, but we cannot be seen."

"Are those young female writers still around?"

"Not the young ones, but the older ones," she said. "And there are also just other workers who may or may not recognize you. But nevertheless, we cannot be seen; it would just cause too much mayhem, and we really do need to keep your being here secret. I mean, if the world discovered that you were here…" She gave a small shudder. "I do not want to think about it."

Aragorn nodded in understanding. "Seeing the reaction of my appearance with but a few, I do not want to see what would happen if many discovered my being here." He looked around the room, and his glance fell onto the computer on the left side of the room. "Is this the same 'computer' that took us home the first time?"

"Yea," she said, walking over to it and staring hard at it. "It is. But it's been acting up. It did some really weird stuff a few minutes ago."

"Such as?"

"Well, I was looking through the recycle bin- that's where the trash goes. You know, the waste and refuse and such. Do you remember the pink castle, dragon den, warg cage, and dungeons?" Aragorn nodded. "Well, that's where it went, because it was trash; it wasn't even supposed to be there. It was added by an invalid person. Anyhow, when I went there, they weren't there anymore. So I started looking through the whole database, and then the computer shut down. I turned it back on and after a couple of minutes it reloaded. Then I went once more to the whole database and found the whole entire thing all jumbled up. As I tried to rearrange all of the codes and configurations, the computer then shut itself off once more. Then I turned on the computer again, went to the main database, and slowly rearranged all of the codes. I finally succeeded. After this, though, I tried to access some fan fiction and then all the power went out. And then you came here."

Aragorn nodded and Mandy could tell that he was thinking quickly and trying to gather all of his thoughts. Finally, he asked, "At about what time did the computer first shut itself off?"

She frowned. "About fifteen minutes ago, I suppose. Why?"

"If our times correspond with each other, then that is about the exact same time when the world spun and the orcs started acting quite… odd."

"What do you mean?" Mandy asked, slightly alarmed.

"At the time your computer first shut off, the world spun around as if rotating in a wheel. I shut my eyes, and once I opened them, everything was normal. Or… so I thought. The orcs were acting… very odd. They spoke in strange accents and their behavior was quite abnormal."

"That's weird," she commented. "Can you maybe explain how they were acting?"

"It is a bit hard…" said Aragorn uneasily. "I do not think I could mimic the accent."

"Fine," she said with a wave of her hand. "Anything else?"

"Yes. About the time your computer shut off again, the world spun around once more, and the orcs were different again. This time, however, they were acting like… like children." Mandy raised an eyebrow. "I know it is hard to believe, but it is nevertheless true," the ranger insisted. "They clapped and jumped around as if they were lighthearted schoolboys. However, the world spun one last time-"

"When I had cleaned up the database, I assume?" Mandy asked with grim smile.

"I imagine so. This last time, however, they were normal. It was then that they started to beat me… and I came here."

Mandy slowly nodded. "It almost seems as if what happened in Middle-earth is directly connected to what happened to the computer… when it was acting weird, Middle-earth's atmosphere was weird. When I rearranged the database before the power out, Middle-earth went once more normal. So… somehow they are connected. But how?" Mandy sighed and leaned her head against the computer screen. She then blinked and turned to face Aragorn. "What about Legolas?"

Aragorn grimaced. "He was already unconscious when I awoke."

"Great," muttered Mandy. "Wonder where he is right now."

"Do you think-"

"I have no idea, Aragorn," she interrupted with a wave of her hand. "I have no idea. This is all extremely confusing. I just don't know why this is happening. I honestly don't know." She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and then after a moment of silence, muttered, "I'm sorry you have to see me like this. I'm extremely stressed. I have no idea what is happening, or how, or why… I don't know anything. I am sure, though, that they are all connected… somehow. But-"

"Mandy?"

Mandy immediately fell quiet as she heard another speak her name; someone from outside the small room.

"Mandy, are you in there? It's Lena. The Heads wanted me to check up on you to see if you were alright and if everything was functioning properly."

'_Yea right_,' thought Mandy to herself. '_They probably just want to see if I have their fan fiction ready for them._' Aloud, she said, "I'm fine, Lena. Everything is functioning properly too."

A moment of silence. "You sure?"

Mandy held back a sigh. "Yes, I am quite sure, thank you."

Another moment of silence. "I heard you talking to someone in there," Lena said to her.

"I was talking to myself. I'm fine," she said with a note of finality.

"You positive?"

Mandy did not bother to hold back her sigh. "Yes. Now please leave me so I can finish what I was doing," the young woman said a bit shortly. "And tell the Heads that there is no fan fiction available so they will just have to wait."

A moment of silence, then, "Alright then, if you insist."

"I do," Mandy muttered under her breath. Out loud, she called, "Don't worry, I'm fine down here. I'm here by myself all the time. A little power out is nothing to me."

She finally heard Lena's footsteps leave the basement, and faintly she could hear the elevator come down, and then go up.

"Finally," she muttered, and then glanced at Aragorn, who looked slightly amused. "That wasn't funny."

"Of course it wasn't," he said with a neutral expression.

She narrowed her eyes slightly, and then shook her head and went to the door. "Well, we can't stay here. C'mon, Aragorn, let's try and get our of here without being seen. If you are spotted… well…"

"How bad would it be?" Aragorn asked bluntly.

"Let's just say that all hell would break loose," she said with a grim smile, and opened the door.


	8. Chapter 8

Sorry it took so long to get this in... don't think you all really care, though :-P Anyhow, I went to the comic con this last weekend and met Richard Taylor (producerof LOTR), and I got a real movie prop from the movie Narnia coming out this December. I was so ecstatic :-D Anyhow, here's the next chapter. I'm still trying to figure out where the heck I am going from here, so I have no idea when chapter nine will be out. Anyhow, please review :-)

* * *

Chapter Eight

Brittany looked at her closed door with a venomous glare. She did not want to be the one to reveal the news of their unexpected guest to her crazy friends. But to her dismay, both Legolas and Abs had insisted that she be the one to do it. Thus, she was now stuck in this very uncomfortable position, with the elf and her friend right behind her, carrying all of the snacks from the kitchen.

Behind the closed door she could hear muffled voices that burst into anger and laughter at various intervals. They were inaudible to her and Abs, but by the look on Legolas' face, he heard every word spoken, and his face was a cross between amusement and disbelief. She was not sure if she wanted to know what they were talking about.

The girl glared at the door once more. She really did not want to be here right now. Maybe she could hide Legolas in Mandy's room for the next few hours… yes, then she wouldn't have to deal with this…

"Go on, already," whispered Abs with a nudge. "This stuff is getting heavy."

"Why do I have to do this again?" demanded Brittany.

"Because you know him and this is your house," said Abs with a tone that indicated that this was the most logical explanation in the world. "Now go."

With a small sigh, Brittany glared at the two behind her and quickly went inside her room, and shut the door behind her.

There was an argument going on between Summer and Becky about who was better: Aragorn or Legolas. Alex and Mari watched this with both annoyance and amusement. They all were so distracted that they did not notice that she had entered.

"Legolas is much better than that smelly, dirty ranger," said Becky for probably the tenth time in the last five minutes. "He can use a bow like no one else, and he looks hot while doing it!"

"Aragorn is the best swordsman in the whole world," shot Summer. "He has a manliness that just makes him absolutely perfect!"

"Legolas is graceful and nimble and he can walk on snow!"

"The elf is girly." Summer then proceeded to stand up and start prancing around the room on the tips of her toes. In a high voice, she said, "Oh, look at me, I'm Legolas and I am like, ever so hot!" She gave a high pitched giggle and then a gasp. "Like, oh my god, like, I got a hair out of place!" She took out an imaginary brush and started to pretend to brush her hair.

"Legolas is not like that! I mean, he's clean. He doesn't smell like Aragorn does," yelled Becky. "Legolas is just so much better than the ranger and you can't admit that!"

"Guys!" Mari shouted over Summer's objections to Becky's comment. "Enough already! Both of them are cool. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. Can you just give it a rest now?"

Summer and Becky both glared at Mari and would have probably started arguing with her if Brittany did not interrupt them.

"Hey! Guys!" Brittany shouted. "What's wrong with all of you? I've never seen you guys argue so much about these two! And why are you laughing?" She turned this last question to Alex, who was on her bed laughing her head off.

"You should've seen it!" Alex said once she caught her breath. "These two were at each other's throats! It was hilarious!"

"Was not!" shouted Mari, Becky, and Summer at the same time.

"I think all this tension has built up because we are on fan fic withdrawal," said Mari. "We need something to do… did Abs get the snacks? Where is she?"

"Yea, what took you all so long?" Summer demanded. "All that arguing has made me hungry."

"You're always hungry," muttered Becky under her breath.

"She always needs… to feed," Alex said in her best Gollum voice.

"All she gets is filthy orcses," Mari caught on immediately.

"And they doesn't taste very nice, does they precious?" Alex said happily.

"Enough, enough," Brittany said. "I have some news. Guys, we have an… an unexpected guest."

"Unexpected guest?" Becky asked.

"Who?" Summer asked.

Brittany gave Summer a crooked smile. "Someone you've been dissing for about three years now."

Summer frowned. "Richard?"

"No, no, not him… uhm… well, I suppose I should just show you all. Whatever you do, all, please don't jump on him." Before her friends could ask her what the heck she meant by that, Brittany threw the door wide open.

* * *

"Ok, ok, we need to get you out of here…" Mandy muttered for about the hundredth time. She was pacing in small circles around the room, and her constant pacing and mutters were starting to get onto Aragorn's nerves.

"I believe I understand that," Aragorn said with a bit of sarcasm evident in his tone. Mandy ignored him and continued to mutter to herself.

"It's almost lunchtime… that means everyone will be either out or eating in the lunchroom… but that doesn't mean there will not be people in the lobby or even in the parking lot." She frowned, and stopped her pacing to look at Aragorn. "And you just stand out way too much." She frowned again, but to Aragorn's relief did not resume pacing. "We need to somehow… disguise you. Yea, that's it." She looked at him up and down and suddenly a large grin split her face. "I've got it!"

Aragorn looked at her quizzically. "You know of a way for I to go unseen?"

She nodded. "Yes. But it requires a little bit of preparation. Aragorn, I need you to stay here. I'll be back in about half an hour. I'll knock three times when I come back. If anyone comes down here, just pretend no one is here. If they manage to unlock the door and come into this room… well… I guess you'll have to knock them out or something."

Aragorn looked at her in horror. "Knock out an unarmed and oblivious person? I could never do that!"

"Screw your honor and heroic nature!" Mandy shot back. "This is survival. If anyone else sees you and word gets out, you are completely screwed."

"I shall not attack an innocent and defenseless being," Aragorn insisted.

"You attacked me in Rivendell! Remember that 'choke and demand answers' scene at the front steps?"

"I thought you were a threat to Legolas and I. To our knowledge, everyone there was a sorceress that brought us terrifying nightmares. Of course we looked at you as a threat."

"Well, anyone that comes here will be a threat to you as well!"

"No one will come," Aragorn said confidently.

"And what if they do? Will you knock them out? It's not like I'm asking you to kill them or anything."

"No," Aragorn refused. "I shall not. If anyone does happen to come down here, I'm sure it will work out alright."

Mandy threw up her hands in resignation. "Fine! But if you end up in a display case in a museum, don't say I didn't warn you!" With that, she left the room and Aragorn could hear a key click into the door.

"A display case in a museum?" he asked himself in bemusement. "What in the world is a museum?"

* * *

The room fell completely silent as four pairs of eyes stared at the elven prince of Mirkwood. He himself looked at the four children with open curiosity and a bit of amusement. He was not completely sure of their ages, but he knew that they were definitely not yet considered adults, and were probably all around Brittany's age. Two of the girls had dark hair, while the other two had a lighter shade, yet not nearly as light as his. They varied from short to tall, green-eyed to brown, and all had distinguishing traits that made them different. All of them, though, wore the same expression of utter disbelief. He assumed that they did indeed know him; perhaps they were even part of that strange world he and Aragorn had visited all those years ago. Seeing that Brittany had only aged a couple of years while almost half a century had passed in Middle-earth, he correctly assumed that time passed slower here than in his own world.

Abs was the first to break the silence that had fallen over the group, seeing as she had already met the elf. "Hard to believe, huh?" she told the shocked group.

Brittany snorted, and then turned to the four of her friends. "Well, guys, this is… this is Legolas Greenleaf. Legolas of Mirkwood. Legolas, the one sitting by the computer is Mari, the one on the bed is Alex, the short one on the floor is Becky, and the tall one on the floor is Summer."

Mari finally broke out of her shock. "This… this is Legolas? This isn't a joke or something?"

"No joke," insisted Brittany.

"But… but he doesn't exist," Alex said, disbelief still written across her face.

"I assure you, I am quite real," Legolas said to her.

Mari's eyes widened. "You… you sound… well, you don't sound human! No human can sound like that… you… you…"

"You sound like an elf," Abs said, grinning widely. "Is that quite enough proof for you?"

"Ears!" Alex demanded. "Are his ears pointed?"

Brittany looked to Legolas, and Legolas, with a glance at the uncertain girl on the bed, moved his hair and uncovered his ear. It was indeed pointed.

"Oh my God…" Mari said, standing up and walking over to Legolas. "You… you do exist! You're real!" Alex quickly jumped off the bed and followed her friend, and they immediately started looking all over Legolas. They soon found their eyes resting on his quiver and bow.

"Wow… it's real…" Alex said, and went to touch it.

"Do not touch my weapons," Legolas said in a calm, yet demanding voice. Alex immediately pulled back her hand. "Now, where can I put these… food items?" He indicated to the load in his arms.

"Just put them on my bed," Brittany said. "Oh, and feel free to eat anything you like." Legolas nodded, and he and Abs dropped their load onto Brittany's bed.

Down on the floor, still in shock, was Becky. Summer, it seemed, had disappeared. After Legolas had put down all of the snacks, he looked questioningly at the girl looking up at him in utter shock, and then to Brittany. "Is she alright?" he asked. "I am no healer, but she looks a bit pale."

Brittany glanced at her friend. "Hmm…" she said. "I'm not sure. Frankly, I'm surprised she didn't jump on you. She's completely crazy about you." She knelt down in front of Becky. "Becky? Hello, you still with us?" She waved a hand across her friend's face.

Finally, Becky blinked. "I… I am not dreaming?" she asked, her voice very quiet.

"No. He's real," Brittany said. "He's quite real."

Faster than anyone thought possible, Becky got herself off the floor and immediately devoured Legolas into a large hug. Legolas looked quite surprised and a bit uncomfortable, yet he did not do anything as to push the girl away.

After a few moments, Becky finally let go and looked up into the elf's eyes. Her own eyes were shining with joy. "I… I can't believe it! I cannot believe I am actually meeting you!" she said with excitement. "I mean, I thought this whole time you were made up and not real, yet here you actually are! I can't believe it!" Her smile on her face widened. "You have no idea how much I love you, Legolas! I think you are so cool! You are so great with a bow, you are nice, you are generous, you are kind, you are just… just so awesome!" With this she enveloped him with another hug.

When she finally let go, Legolas did not even bother to hide his amusement over her joy. "I thank you for your kind words," he said. "But you have never met me before. How do you know that I am all that you say I am?"

"I've read about you and seen you in the movies, of course!" said Becky as if that were the most logical and obvious thing in the world.

Legolas turned to Brittany. "Read about me? Does she mean that fan fiction?" he asked her.

"No, not just that…" Brittany started hesitantly. "You know what fan fiction is, right?" she asked.

"Mandy told us that it was stories about a character," Legolas said.

"Well, it's not just that," said Brittany. "Fan fiction can also be based off of books, TV shows, and movies- I'll explain what TV shows and movies are later," she added as an afterthought. "Anyhow, you are a character in this very popular trilogy of both books and movies about the Fellowship and events concerning the Third Age- Mandy told me all about her encounters with you and Aragorn," she said to his surprised look.

"Wait, wait, wait," Alex interrupted. "Mandy knows Legolas and Aragorn? How? When? Tell us all!" she demanded.

She looked at her four curious friends in the room, and then back to Legolas. When he gave a slight nod to her unasked question, she looked once more at her friends. "Well, I suppose I… wait." She looked at her friends once more. One, two, three, four… weren't there five?

"Guys, where's Summer?" asked Brittany.

They all blinked and looked around as if they expected Summer to be standing right next to them. Naturally, she was not. Brittany frowned, and glanced at the door. It was still in the same position it was when she had thrown it open, and she could not have sneaked out without bumping into one of them. '_So she must still be in this room_,' thought Brittany.

Brittany first looked under the bed, and when she could not find Summer there, looked to her closet. She opened the door, and underneath a pile of fallen jackets and coats was her friend, trying to remain invisible.

"What are you doing in my closet?" Brittany asked her friend. Yes, her friend was odd, but this was just beyond odd.

"Hiding from eternal embarrassment," Summer's muffled answer came back.

Brittany frowned. "Embarrassment from what?"

Summer poked her head out from the coats. "Oh, let's see… how about the person that, as you say, I have been 'dissing for about three years now'," she quoted. "The same person I've made fun of that is in this very house and if he finds me shall certainly skewer me with his knife." With that, she threw the coat over her head again.

Brittany looked helplessly to Legolas, who had remained out of sight during this exchange. The young girl mouthed, "You aren't going to skewer her, are you?" Legolas, amusement still written across his face, shook his head and then indicated that Brittany should let him talk with her. With a shrug, Brittany moved away from the closet door and Legolas took her place.

"Summer," Legolas said kindly. The pile of coats simply moved deeper into the closet. "Summer, I shall not… 'skewer' you," he said. "Come on out."

The pile of coats was still. "You won't?" a muffled voice came from it.

"You have my word."

"Even though I dissed you and made fun of you and everything?"

"Even though," said Legolas with barely contained amusement. "Come on out, now."

Summer poked her head out. "Legolas…" she started. "I'm really sorry. I mean… I didn't think you… you know, existed and stuff… I really did not mean to call you girly or anything… I think you're pretty cool with the bow and stuff… and it's cool that you are light on your feet… and, well…"

"I understand," said Legolas with a kind smile. "It was a misunderstanding. Though I trust it shall not happen again?" Summer nodded earnestly. "Good. Come on out, now."

Summer got all the coats off of her and crawled out of the closet. She was assisted by Legolas, who, naturally, was in his 'be courteous to everyone' type of mood. Such are the ways of heroes.

"Right," said Brittany once she was back on her feet. "Now that that's over and done with, I suppose I have quite a story to tell." She looked at the five of her friends and Legolas, took a deep breath, and started. "It all began one day in Rivendell…"

* * *

Aragorn paced the room back and forth, trying his best to keep himself occupied. He frankly was not at all happy with the current situation; being locked in this small room reminded him too much of those horrid nightmares he used to experience. Also, he did not like the fact that he was weaponless; it made him feel uncomfortably bare and defenseless. He dearly wished he still had his weapons and that they were not taken from him by the orcs.

He honestly had no idea how long Mandy had been gone, as there were no windows to show the passing of time outside. To keep himself distracted, he thought over all that had gone on these past couple of days. The Fellowship was broken, with Gandalf and possibly Gimli dead, and the other's current states unknown. According to Mandy, all that has happened was not supposed to happen. Then just about an hour ago, he was in Middle-earth where the orcs started acting very odd about the same times this computer- and here he glanced at the large computer on the left side of the room- started acting up, or so it seemed by Mandy's reports.

And speaking of Mandy… in her world- well, this world, he amended- all 'fan fiction' had disappeared and was completely inaccessible, or so it seemed from what Mandy had told him. And this disappearance of all this fan fiction seemed to happen the same time he and Legolas were captured, or so he assumed. He had a feeling that these were not all coincidences, and that the capture, the vanished fan fiction, and the uncooperative computer were all connected…

And that castle, of course. Aragorn stopped his pacing and frowned to himself. That dream of the pink castle and it disappearing from the 'recycle bin' was surely not a coincidence, either… but in no way could the ranger see how all of these things added up. It was just too complicated.

Aragorn let out a small sigh and looked at all three computers again. They looked pretty much the same, other than the fact that the one on the end wall seemed to be bigger than the other two. They also all had black screens, though the ones on the sides seemed to be running, or so he assumed from the light humming sound coming from both. The one in the center was off.

He was suddenly brought out of his train of thoughts by a knock at the door.

"Mandy? Are you still in there?"

Aragorn did not recognize the voice, but he was pretty sure it was not the woman who had come before. It was a new voice.

"Mandy, do you have my fan fiction yet? You've been here for at least an hour… nearly two! It can't be that hard to find something!" He heard the person outside try to open the locked door. "Mandy, open this door!"

Aragorn did not respond, and just hoped that if she did not get a response, this newcomer would go away. Aragorn's heartbeat quickened, though, at her next words.

"Fine then. If you won't open this door, then I'm coming in!" To his horror, he heard a key being inserted into the door, and he had nowhere to go. He was about to be found out.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Mandy walked to the elevator and not-so-patiently waited for the elevator to come. In her hands she had a large shopping bag, and inside was a t-shirt and a pair of pants that hopefully fit Aragorn. Also in there was a baseball cap, a pair of sunglasses, and a hairbrush; she had to make him look as inconspicuous as possible.

Finally the elevator came and she quickly got inside and pressed the button for the basement. She hoped that no one had discovered him… she was unfortunately gone for a much longer time than she liked. The elevator stopped in the basement, and Mandy quickly got out. The sight before her eyes nearly put her in a state of panic.

One of the Heads had the key in the door of the control room and was about to unlock it and open it, and thus discover the Ranger. Under no circumstances could Mandy let this happen. She did not want to think about what the Heads would do if they found Aragorn… probably try to keep him for themselves. She had to act quickly.

"Ma'am!" shouted Mandy to her boss. "Ma'am!"

The Head turned to her as the door swung open. In the center of the room stood Aragorn, completely still. Mandy tried her best to keep her eyes on her boss so as to not draw any attention to the figure behind her.

"There you are!" said the Head, hands on her hips. "Where have you been? Have you got my fan fiction yet?"

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I had something urgent come up that I needed to look into," said Mandy hastily. "And I could not access the fan fiction from this computer. It looks like it is completely inaccessible from here." The Head frowned, and opened her mouth. "However," interrupted Mandy, "I may be able to find some of my daughter's fan fiction on my home computer… oh, but she does not get home until three, and by then it would be already very, very late in the day." The Head opened her mouth again. "But," said Mandy quickly, "if you allow me to go now, I can pick Brittany up early, and then she can get her fan fiction that is saved onto my home computer, and then I can bring it back to you! How does that sound, ma'am?"

The Head blinked as she processed all this information in. As she did this, Aragorn sneaked over to the side of the room, and hid himself as best as he could behind the mass of the computer. Obviously, he being a Ranger, she did not hear him. Mandy did her best not to look at Aragorn at all.

Finally, she replied, "That sounds good, then. I'll allow it. But what's in that shopping bag?" She indicated to the bag Mandy was holding.

"Oh, this?" Mandy asked, slightly lifting the bag. "It's, uhm, my… my boyfriend's present! Yes, my boyfriend's birthday present. His birthday is today."

"_You_ have a boyfriend?" the Head asked incredulously, and Mandy resisted the urge to roll her eyes. The Heads could be quite rude sometimes, and most of the time she had no idea if they meant it or not.

"Yes, I do," said Mandy, walking over to her boss. "Now, let's leave this dark place and you go back to your office. I'll lock the Control Room doors, go home, and find you some fan fiction, okay?" Without waiting for a reply, she half-led, half-pushed her boss to the elevator. Once they reached it she quickly let her inside and then covered any view to the Control Room.

"Alright, then, I shall see you later. Make sure to be quick!" her boss' last words were as the elevator closed. When it started up, Mandy let out a deep breath and then rushed back to the Control Room to find Aragorn.

"She's gone, Aragorn," called out Mandy. "We're safe for now."

"That is well," said the Ranger, coming out of his poor hiding place behind the computer. "I am glad you came when you came. What took you so long?"

"This," Mandy said, giving Aragorn the bag. He looked at the articles inside it with curiosity. "It's clothing… well, modern day men's clothing, to be precise. If I'm going to get you out of here, you have to blend in."

Aragorn frowned and pulled out the jeans. "I need to dress into this?" he asked with uncertainty.

"Yes," Mandy replied. "Don't worry. Now c'mon, you need to hurry up. Just put all of your clothing into the bag, okay?"

Aragorn gave a hard look at the clothing in the shopping bag, and then relented. "Alright. I shall do this, though I do not like it, nor do these clothes look comfortable."

"They are," assured Mandy. "You just need to get used to them, that's all."

Aragorn nodded and took off his cloak, and then started to untie his jerkin. It was then he noticed that Mandy was still in the room. He gave her a look.

She stopped staring at him and blinked. "Oh… oh! Right, right, excuse me." She then stole one last look at Aragorn, who looked at her with a slightly annoyed, yet slightly amused expression on his face, and closed the door of the Control Room.

'_I cannot believe I just stayed and stared at him as he started to get undressed_,' thought Mandy. '_I'm not that type of person… I am _not_ a fan girl. In no way am I a fan girl. No way whatsoever_.' She sighed, and took a deep breath. '_I blame Brittany for any bad influences she has made on my mind with her constant ramblings on how "hot Aragorn and Legolas are and how she wished they would have been shirtless at least once in the movies"… though maybe it wouldn't be any harm just to get a little peak… no! No, no, no. I am not that kind of woman. Snap out of these thoughts, Mandy! Regain a hold of yourself. You have more dignity than that. You shall not be reduced to a drooling fan girl._' With those thoughts in her mind, she got her mind out of the gutter and impatiently waited for Aragorn to finish changing.

After about ten minutes of waiting, he finally beckoned her to come in, and she did. The sight that came to her eyes was certainly something one does not see every day.

Aragorn had put on the jeans and the shirt both the right way, but it looked extremely odd on him. Mandy had only seen him in his Ranger garments, and seeing this rugged outdoorsman in new clean jeans and a nice red t-shirt was just… odd. Aragorn seemed to find it very odd and uncomfortable as well. No one could blame him, either. In his right hand he held the bag, which now contained his old clothing (it was fortunate that he did not come here with any weapons, as all were taken away by the orcs), and in his left hand he held the cap, the sunglasses, and the hairbrush.

Mandy looked at him up and down and nodded. "That's a start… but you still need to put on the glasses, the cap, and definitely brush your hair." She looked to the tangled mass on top of his head with a bit of disgust.

"I already tried," Aragorn said grimly. "But the brush will not go through my hair."

"You're too dirty," she stated, looking at his hair, arms, and face. "Way too dirty. And you smell." She sniffed the air and frowned. "You need a bath."

"So a good friend of mine has said many a time," replied the Ranger. "But it is not as if I have a choice; reputable areas with bathing areas are hard to come by in the Wild," he added wryly.

"Excuses, excuses," Mandy brushed him off. "Legolas manages to keep clean, and I bet the hobbits do, too. Now let me see that brush."

Aragorn handed the hairbrush to her, and she went behind the Ranger, avoiding his stench. The new clothes, though, definitely helped a bit; but nevertheless there was a lingering smell of sweat and blood on his body… first thing she would do when they got to her house was toss him in the shower. She brought up the brush to his hair and started to brush; well, at least, she tried.

"Ah!" exclaimed the Ranger in surprise as she started tugging roughly at his hair. "What are you doing?"

"Trying-" tug- "to brush-" tug- "your stupid hair!" With that she gave a hard yank, and Aragorn let out a surprised shout as the brush went through and took half of his hair with him.

"Enough!" shouted Aragorn, taking the brush away from Mandy. "That is enough!"

"But-" Mandy started to protest, but then saw Aragorn's look. It was the look that no one in their right mind would argue with, and at the moment, Mandy was in her right mind. "Fine," she muttered. "But you must gather all your hair up and then put on the cap, then. Trust me, you'll stick out if you leave your dirty hair just hanging."

"What of this?" he indicated to the sunglasses in his hand.

"Ah, yes," said the young woman, and she took them out of his hands and put them on his face. "Sunglasses. They help protect your eyes from the bright rays of the sun when you're outside… and, of course, help disguise you. Many times if you can't see someone's eyes, you won't recognize them right away. The cap will also help." Aragorn took off the sunglasses, looked at them with open curiosity, and then put them back on again. He looked around the room in amazement.

"This is fascinating," he murmured. "Never have I seen the world like this."

Mandy snorted. "You can look around later. Gather up all your hair and put on the cap." He complied, and then Mandy stepped back to get a full view of him.

It was then that she burst out laughing.

"What is so amusing?" demanded Aragorn, frowning.

"You!" she gasped between giggles. "You… you look so… different! And… it's weird! It's hilarious! I mean, I always see you in your dark leather clothes with a sword at your side, and here you are in jeans, a t-shirt, sunglasses, and a baseball cap, holding a shopping bag!" She started on another full bout of laughter as the Ranger just frowned at her.

"I still do not see how that is amusing; after all, this disguise _is_ required, correct?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

She calmed down and nodded. "It is, though I do wish we could do something about your hair… but hiding it under the hat will do for now." She looked him over one last time, and grinning, beckoned him to follow her out. She locked the door behind him, and then led him through the basement and to the elevator.

Once there, he looked at the few buttons on the wall with curiosity. "What is this?" he asked.

"Elevator buttons," she replied. "I press that one over there, and then the elevator comes down to us behind those metal doors. Once the elevator has reached us, the doors open, and we move up to the first floor. It's pretty much just a nice convenience and much quicker than, say, stairs."

The elevator came down and with a light bell-like sound, the doors opened. Aragorn looked in wonder at the sliding doors, and then the inside of the compartment with some suspicion. Mandy, holding back the elevator doors so they wouldn't close on them, rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry, Aragorn, everyone uses elevators these days. They aren't anything dangerous."

"It is small, and there is no way to escape it if it fails," Aragorn replied, still not entering the elevator.

Mandy rolled her eyes again. "There's an escape hatch up on the roof, if you're so paranoid. And elevators rarely break down; to my knowledge, this one has only broken down once, and that was two years ago. Now c'mon, it's only a couple of floors until we get to the first floor."

Aragorn studied her and the elevator for a moment longer, and then reluctantly stepped in. She grinned, and finally stepped in herself, and the doors closed. On their way up, Aragorn looked extremely tense and uncomfortable, and he kept on eyeing the small space with a vigilance that soon started to annoy the young woman. To calm him down a bit, Mandy tried humming a very repetitive tune that she found helped calm her. As it is, that only agitated him more. Tension was high when the doors finally opened on the first floor, and Mandy was very glad to escape the elevator. Never before had such a short elevator ride been so painful.

Aragorn exited as quickly as Mandy, and then got a look of his surroundings. He was in a long, wide hallway with a dull blue carpeting and surrounded by gray walls that held many doors and other hallways. At the end of the hallway was a pair of clear double doors that led outside to a dark gray area filled with strange devices that he had never seen before. The hallways were silent and empty.

"Let's go," she muttered to him, and he followed her quick footsteps to the outside.

Suddenly, a door to the left was opened, and out came a woman that he immediately recognized; it was the same lady that Mandy had talked with just moments ago. Mandy stopped dead in her tracks, and the lady immediately saw her.

"Mandy!" she greeted. "I assume you are off home to work on your… assignment?"

"Assignment?" Mandy blinked, and then remembered what she had told her boss just moments before. "Oh, yes! Yes, I, uhm… yes, I'm going to do my… my assignment." She gave the Head a feeble smile.

The Head finally seemed to notice Aragorn, and looked up at the tall Ranger. "Who is this?" she asked.

"This?" Mandy indicated to Aragorn, trying to think fast. "This… this is my… boyfriend! Yes, this is my boyfriend Ara- Aaron," she quickly amended.

"Nice to meet you, Aaron," she said, sticking out her hand. Aragorn looked quickly to Mandy for instructions, and she discreetly motioned to him to take her hand. He did so, and then to Mandy's horror, kissed it.

"Pleasure," he greeted in a quiet voice. Mandy was desperately trying not to go to the nearest wall and repeatedly smash her head into it… or Aragorn's head, for that matter.

The Head giggled. "Wow, such a gentleman!" she said with a grin, and then looked to Mandy. "You caught a good one; you don't want to let him go!" She then gave her employee a wink.

Mandy did her best not to cringe and gave a clenched smile. "Yes, he is… quite charming," she agreed.

The Head gave a large smile and then looked up into 'Aaron's' face more closely. "You seem awfully familiar… have we met before?" she asked him.

"Oh, wow, would you look at the time, we need to go, lovely talking to you, have a good day!" Mandy said within a span of three seconds, grabbed Aragorn's hand, and then nearly dragged him away.

"I'll talk with you later, Mandy!" the Head shouted after her. "Nice meeting you, Aaron! Oh, and happy birthday!" Anything she may have said afterwards was not heard by the two, who had shut the door firmly behind them and were now outside in the parking lot. Aragorn looked about in bewilderment as Mandy partially dragged him to her car. She unlocked the door, nearly forced him in, quickly closed his door, and then rushed to the other side of the car. After getting in, she quickly sped out of the parking lot and onto the street, where she stopped her car on the side once they were out of sight of the box company.

"You… you…" Mandy stuttered, looking at Aragorn with an incredulous look on her face. "You… you kissed her hand! You actually kissed her hand! What the hell where you thinking?"

Aragorn frowned. "You told me to take her hand, and so I did!" he insisted.

"To shake! To bloody shake! Haven't you ever shaken someone's hand when you meet them?"

"That is not a greeting used in Middle-earth, to my knowledge. I have seen it every now and then amongst hobbits, but otherwise-"

"Never mind, never mind," Mandy said and waved her hand. "It doesn't matter… but frankly, that was way too close. Way too close for my comfort. She almost recognized you, and your little lordly kiss did not help at all, either. But, actually…" She giggled. "Actually, I think she was quite enamored by you. You charm women even when they don't know who you are." She giggled again. "I'm glad she did not discover who you really were… she'd be probably hanging off you right now, if she did."

Aragorn's frown deepened. "Are all women so forward in this world?"

"No, not really… maybe a little bit more, but not too much. Most of the time we keep our thoughts to ourselves or our girl friends. But for hot guys like you-"

"Hot?"

"Handsome, charming, 'I want to have your baby', etc, etc…" she explained, oblivious to Aragorn's disbelieving look at her last description. "But anyways, with hot guys like you and who we think don't exist, our hormones go absolutely whack. I do hope Brittany keeps herself in check," she added as an afterthought.

Aragorn nodded slowly, if not uncertainly. "I believe I understand… though one last question. What is a 'boyfriend'?"

It was here that Mandy snorted. "A boyfriend is like… well, like a guy who is courting a girl. The girl is called the girlfriend in the relationship. But the difference between a courtship and a boyfriend and girlfriend relationship is that not every relationship ends in marriage as most courtships do, or so I assume."

"Why would a man seek to court a woman if not to wed her?" asked Aragorn.

Mandy shrugged. "That's how its worked for a long time… it's just a part of life. But don't ask me to explain more," she said to his inquiring look. "We need to get to my place." It was here that she buckled herself in, and then looked expectantly at Aragorn.

Aragorn hesitantly strapped himself in, and then looked as if for the first time at the car. "What is this strange device?" he asked her.

"Car," she replied. "My car. An easier and faster way of transportation as opposed to horses. I dunno how fast a horse can travel, but a car can go extremely fast; sometimes past one hundred miles an hour. But don't worry," she said to his shocked look, "we will only be going between twenty-five and forty miles an hour on these streets most of the time. But it is a lost faster than a horse."

"Quite," Aragorn said, and gripped the edges of his seat.

Mandy shook her head, started the car once more, and drove off.


	10. Chapter 10

Sorry for such a long wait; RL caught up with me. I hope you enjoy. Feedback GREATLY appreciated :-)

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Chapter Ten

The two drove straight through the suburban area to Mandy's apartment, which was on the other side of town and maybe ten minutes away with not too many traffic stops. Aragorn's iron grip on his seat soon lessened when he discovered that driving in a car at thirty miles an hour was not all that bad, and Mandy shot him a smirk. He, however, was absorbed in looking at all the buildings, which ranged from small thrift shops to large supermarkets to tall office buildings. The sidewalks were decorated with lampposts, litter, and people, while in the streets there rode other motorists and every now and then a bicyclist. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before.

"What are all these buildings for?" asked Aragorn. "It does not look like they are for living."

"Oh, dear me, no," said Mandy. "Houses and apartments are in other neighborhoods. These are stores, where you can buy anything you want. I assume there are markets in Middle-earth?"

Aragorn nodded. "Yes, and in cities there are some buildings owned by guilds where one can purchase specialty items."

"Well, here- well, at least in most parts of this country- one can simply go to any store they need and buy what they want, whether it is food or clothes or specialty items, like… I don't know, picture frames."

Aragorn raised his eyebrow. "Picture frames?"

"Yes, picture frames."

Aragorn looked highly amused, but said no more of it. "In Middle-earth, most families grow their food and make their own clothes; in cities one could purchase some clothing or food, but most of the time that would be from the market. And usually the materials for making clothing would be bought, not the actual piece."

Mandy nodded, and shrugged. "Different times, different places. In almost every town in this country there are places to buy food and clothes, at the least. In some towns with the population of, say, fifty, there are not too many stores, but we have vehicles to help us go from place to place, so it's really no problem.

"And there are a lot of stuff to buy, too. Food, including already-made dinners, thousands and thousands of different types of clothing, furniture, toys, decorations for your home, bathroom items like soap, and just so much more. Hell, if one is too busy or too lazy to find some seeds and plant some flowers, they can buy the flowers!"

"Already-made dinners, ready clothing, and devices such as this to move around," Aragorn said quietly. "Your life is very easy."

Mandy snorted. "Just because we have those luxuries does not mean that life is easy. Taxes are high, debts for cars and housing must be paid off, the utility billsneed be paid every month, and trust me, food and clothing is not free nor is it always cheap. A lot of adults go to work nearly every day of the week with not too many vacation days, and all those days these people are working hard to earn enough money to pay off all of these things, and more. And if one slacks off, they won't earn enough money, or they'll be fired and replaced by another. Competition is high and tough in this world. So don't say it's easy, Aragorn; we have our own set of problems." She ended her small rant there and concentrated her efforts back to the road.

Aragorn looked at her with an unreadable look. Mandy could feel his eyes boring into her head. She waited for him to turn away from her or even to speak, but nothing happened. Finally, she could take it no longer and turned her head away from the road and back to the Ranger. "What?" she demanded.

Aragorn shook his head. "Naught," he replied, but the young woman could see a small smile playing on his face.

"What's so funny?" she demanded.

Aragorn's small smile broke out into a grin. "You," he said simply. She waited for him to elaborate, but he did not.

"Alright then, I'll ask: _how am I funny_?"

Aragorn, still grinning, said, "I just find it amusing how our lives are so different and yet so alike."

Mandy brows furrowed as she looked ahead. "Explain."

"Through all of our differences, we are yet the same. Our worlds are both tough. We both have problems in our lives and we both have to work hard in order to solve them. And we both realize that we cannot, as you say, 'slack off'."

Mandy nodded slowly. "I see… but I still don't see what that has to do with me being funny. How am I funny?"

"I find it a bit amusing that you find your job hard and it taking a lot of effort; I have seen you work with those computers and you seem very experienced in them, and they seem fairly simple to use."

"Trust me," Mandy started, "It's hard. I'll stick you right in front of a computer in an office cubicle for a week and see how you handle the power outages, the loads of paperwork, the faulty security system, and the constant nagging of the most annoying bosses on the face of the earth. But I think that… uhm… if you ever become King, you'll understand my plights a bit more, because I have a feeling you'd have a lot of paperwork for the next, say, thirty years."

Aragorn grimaced. "I see your point."

Mandy grinned. "I'm glad you do; otherwise I might have had to carry out that threat. And no, you would not want that."

With that last foreboding sentence, the rest of the car ride to Mandy's apartment was carried out in silence.

O0O0O0O

"Here we are."

Aragorn looked at the strange building complex with curiosity. There were many buildings all gathered around this one area; each building was large and had at least four doors leading inside. They had stopped in front of one of these doors that had above it etched '301'. He gave her an inquiring look.

"This is my apartment, number 301. These apartment complexes are pretty large, with three bedrooms, a living room with some area for dining, two bathrooms, and a good-sized kitchen. I bought it after I adopted Brittany, for my old place was too small. You can sleep in the guest bedroom." With that, she unlocked the door and entered her home.

"Brittany!" Mandy called out. "I'm home! And don't bother trying to hide, I know you had a minimum day today!"

She soon heard a door open and then slam shut, and saw Brittany race down the hallway and to the front room. "Mandy! Uhm, wow, you're home early, I wasn't expect-" It was then that she noticed that Mandy wasn't alone, and she frowned. "Who's he?" she asked.

Mandy grinned. "What, you did not recognize your favorite Ranger?"

Brittany looked at the disguised man closer, and then the young girl's mouth dropped. "Aragorn? You're here too?" she asked incredulously.

"Yes, he's here- wait," Mandy stopped mid-sentence. "He's here _too_? What do you mean? Who else is here?"

"Well…" Brittany started hesitantly, but didn't need to say anything further as a certain elf came walking down the hall.

"Brittany, Becky is really starting to concern me, are you sure she is quite alright?" Legolas looked to Brittany, and then saw Mandy and Aragorn. "Oh, Mandy! I did not hear you enter."

Mandy frowned. "You didn't hear me? How in the world did you not hear me?"

"Mari gave me this strange device she called 'headphones' to listen to. I was listening to this very interesting woman sing very dismal things… very depressing, actually. I do not understand why Mari enjoys it so much."

"Music is music," Mandy replied with a shrug, and then processed all of his words. "Wait a minute… Mari andBecky… Brittany! You invited your friends over?" she asked the young girl with a frown.

"They were with me when we got to the house! Remember, I reminded you we were having a sleepoverjust this morning!" Brittany insisted.

"And just how many of you are there?"

"Me, Mari, Summer, Becky, Alex, and Abs."

"Six teenage girls with _these two_ in the house!" Mandy screamed aloud. "Dear lord, help me now!" she yelled dramatically, throwing her hands up in the air.

Speaking of the two, Legolas was looking closely at Aragorn, who had not yet spoken. "Do I know you? You seem very familiar…" Legolas said, a frown on his face. It was here that Aragorn could contain his silence no more and burst out laughing. A sudden look of recognition passed over the elf's face. "I know that laugh… Aragorn, is that you?"

Still grinning, Aragorn took off the hat and sunglasses and let the elf see him. With a large grin Legolas embraced his friend, and the Ranger gladly returned it. When they broke apart, the elf looked at his friend up and down.

"Aragorn, what in Elbereth's name are you wearing? Tell me not that you came here dressed as that! And where is your sword?"

Aragorn shook his head. "No, I came in my own clothing, but I found myself in Mandy's…" He looked to her for assistance.

"Workplace," Mandy filled in with a shrug.

"Yes. In order to escape unnoticed, she had to disguise me. I just have my clothing in here." He lifted the hand that still held the shopping bag.

Legolas looked at it, and then frowned. "What about your sword?"

"I came not with any weapons."

Legolas frowned deeper. "Strange, for when I arrived here, I had all of my weapons."

"Then you are fortunate," said Aragorn grimly. "I feel bare without Andúril by my side."

"Well, you shouldn't," said Mandy. "There's no need for weapons here, not now. So really, Legolas, I'd appreciate it if you put your stuff down… it's making me quite uncomfortable."

Legolas raised an amused eyebrow at her, but nevertheless bowed his head and complied to her wishes. Soon his quiver, bow, and sheathed knives were in his arms, and he looked at her with an unspoken question.

"Yea, umm, just put them in the guest bedroom, they'll be safe enough there-"

She was then interrupted by a loud voice coming down from the hallway. "Brittany! Legolas! What's taking you guys so long? C'mon, Mari and I want Legolas to listen to some more Evanescence…" Summer turned down the hallway, and then looked at the four beings before her. She looked at Aragorn with his hair down and sunglasses off, and then blinked. She quickly closed up the gap between them, and then looked at Aragorn closer. She blinked again. "Aragorn?" she whispered.

Aragorn glanced at Legolas, and then nodded slowly. "Aye," he said, looking down at her.

She kept on staring at him with wide open eyes, and after a long silence, she whispered, "… what in the world are you wearing?"

Aragorn sighed. This was going to be a long night.


	11. Chapter 11

This chapter will be a bit more light-hearted than ones to follow... though the humor element will always remain, the mystery element will once more play a part either in the next chapter or in chapter 13. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

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Chapter Eleven

Gathered in the living room of the apartment were nine beings, all different from one another yet bound together by this strange situation. Aragorn and Legolas sat on the couch while Mandy sat in the easy chair; all of the teenage girls were gathered by the elf and ranger's feet, and all looking up at them with admiration and a bit of lust. It was a bit disturbing for the two, to say the least.

For the last hour, stories had been exchanged, one of them being how Brittany had told all of her friends about Rivendell and the events that happened there and what they did before Mandy got home. It seemed also that during Mandy's and Aragorn's absence that the teenage girls had learned that they were not to touch Legolas' hair nor weapons on 'pain of death'. From the tale, the young girls had consistently asked if they could and the elf had soon gotten tired of their constant badgering. Aragorn was glad that he woke up with Mandy and not with them.

Then Mandy had told about the strange dreams and the disappearance of fan fiction, while Aragorn and Legolas told about their unfortunate situation with the orcs. The girls gasped and shouted in terror at all appropriate times, which amused Mandy to no end. Finally, Legolas came to the part where he woke from unconsciousness after their failed escape attempt.

"I found Aragorn to still be unconscious, and a burning pain in my leg; the arrow was still there. Once the orcs had found me to be in the waking world once more, they punished me for the escape attempt. I shall not go into details, but after I fell once more into unconsciousness, I woke and found myself here. I then saw Abs in the kitchen and… well, you know the rest."

Aragorn then told his part of the tale, including the strange behavior of the orcs and how it corresponded exactly with when the computer in the Control Room acted up. After he and Mandy related to them how they escaped from the box company unnoticed (with many giggles from the teenagers), Mandy took in a deep breath.

"Alright then… now that we have exchanged stories and such… now what?"

There was an unnatural silence within the room that made it very uncomfortable in the usually noisy house, considering Brittany's friends and their constant visits. Everyone looked at each other with frowns and shrugs.

Finally, Alex broke the silence. "Well… right now we really can't do anything about it. I don't know how this whole transportation from world to world works, but a lot of it has to do with this computer in this Control Room, it seems. Since everyone is still working there right now, we cannot all go down there and try to fix the problem. And I don't see how else we could really work on it."

"So, in other words, we sit back, relax, and enjoy the show?" asked Mari, eyeing Aragorn and Legolas.

"That sounds good," both Becky and Summer said at the same time, the former looking at the elf while the latter looked at the Ranger.

"But first," said Mandy, "you need a bath, Aragorn. Now. You really smell." Aragorn merely raised an eyebrow while Legolas burst out laughing.

"I have told you many times, my friend! Now come, listen to the good lady and wash up!" Legolas laughed in his clear, light voice. All six of the girls were openly staring at him, a good amount of them with an odd, fan girlish lust.

Aragorn glared at his friend, but then looked at the girls who were all staring at the elf, and held back a chuckle. If he was in a bath, he would be away from these odd children… Legolas would soon miss his presence. He stood up and bowed to Mandy in defeat, a smile playing on his lips.

Mandy looked back at Legolas and the girls and rolled her eyes. "Don't eat him," she said in her blunt manner, and then led Aragorn to the bathroom in her own bedroom; he could have some privacy, at least.

"Well, here's the bathroom… tub and shower, sink… erm… towel… soap is right here, and this is shampoo, use that on your hair a few times…" She frowned as she looked at the tub and then at Aragorn. "You're too big for the tub… do you know how to use a shower? Do they have showers in Middle-earth?" Aragorn shook his head. "That's what I thought," she muttered.

She then approached the bathtub and turned on the water. "As you can see, it's filling up as a bath right now, or would if it was plugged up… to take a shower, pull this thing out." She tugged at a small knob, and then the showerhead started spitting out water. Aragorn looked at it in surprise.

"So, shower in here for as long as you need… rinse your hair, scrub yourself, do whatever you need… to turn off the water, press against this knob. To make the water hotter or colder, turn the knob different ways." She then looked at the bag Aragorn was still holding and wrinkled her nose. "But this shower won't do any good if your clothes still smell. Here, give them to me… I'll wash them." Before he had a chance to respond, Mandy took the bag from him. "Feel free to take as long as you want," she insisted. "Make sure you smell good. Just fold up your clothes and leave them here on the counter. When I'm done cleaning these, I'll knock."

She went through the door and started to close it. "Oh, and lock the door behind you by pushing on this small thing… the door will unlock by simply turning the handle. And yes, you do want to keep it locked; we have six teenage girls in the house, many of them which lust for you and probably would not mind seeing you stark naked. Enjoy your shower!" With that, she closed the door behind her.

Aragorn blinked, and immediately locked the door. He was glad he could wash… however, he was not so sure he felt entirely comfortable. Indeed, he was far from. Nevertheless, he trusted for the door to stay locked, and with one last look behind him, he prepared for a shower.

O0O0O0O

When Mandy came back to the living room, she found Legolas telling the girls a story about his home in Mirkwood. They were so caught up in his story that they did not even hear Mandy approach them. Legolas, however, did, and he stopped mid-sentence.

"Aragorn's bath is already prepared?" he asked, surprised.

"The joys of modern plumbing," she responded with a grin. "But he's taking a shower, not a bath. You probably hear the water from my bedroom, and probably running through the pipes too."

"Indeed," Legolas nodded. "I was wondering what was making that sound."

"You'll hear many sounds you are unfamiliar with here," she said with a shrug. "Now, I've really got to wash his clothes… they reek. Do you want to take a shower after him, Legolas?"

"I am well, for now," Legolas said quickly, glancing at the girls. Mandy read his mind and rolled her eyes.

"Girls, you will not spy of him when he is washing up… and not Aragorn either. Actually, I don't want any of you going into my room. The poor man needs his privacy, not a bunch of drooling teens trying to get a peek of… well, I don't want to think about it. But I mean it. No going into my room. I'm going to wash these clothes now… and if I hear any complaints from Legolas, I'm sending you all home. No buts," she said to their shocked faces. "No watching the films or reading the books, though; you heard their story. They're at Amon Hen. If any of you spoil what is to come, I swear I will kill you. Don't say or do anything like that. Now behave." With that, she left the room.

Brittany looked at Mandy's retreating figure, and then shrugged to her friends. "You heard her. No movies, no books, no spoilers."

"Then what will we do?" Alex whined. "If we can't do anything LOTR-related, I'll go bored stiff!"

"We can listen to some more Evanescence," Mari suggested with a grin.

"No, thank you," Legolas said quickly. "And no, you cannot 'play' with my hair," Legolas added to Becky's inquisitive look.

"I didn't say anything!" cried Becky, giving the elf an innocent look. Abs rolled her eyes.

"I bet you were thinking it, though," she said.

"Maybe we can try and see Aragorn…" Summer said quietly, a bright light shining in her eyes. Six pairs of eyes turned to stare at her. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" she cried, throwing up her hands. "Sheesh, can't you people take a joke?" No one bothered to answer her.

"I've got an idea…" Brittany said quietly, a smile forming across her face.

"Really? Do tell," Abs nudged her on.

Brittany broke into a grin. "Care for a game of Monopoly, anyone?"

O0O0O0O

In the other bathroom was Mandy. The sink was filled with water, and right by her were cleaning supplements ranging from laundry detergent to bars of soap to dishwasher detergent. She looked at all the dirty clothes in the bag and wrinkled her nose. She had no idea when was the last time these clothes had been cleaned. This was not going to be fun. She would have used the washers that the apartment complex had, but as they were in another, public building, she didn't want to. After all, if her neighbors saw her with these odd clothes, and men's clothing at that… she didn't want to think about it.

Mandy pulled out the first item of clothing and blinked. Undergarments. She quickly threw it in the sink and locked the bathroom door. The girls could _not_ see this. No. That would definitely not be good. She let it absorb a bit of water and then poured in some laundry detergent and a little dishwasher detergent for good measure. She grabbed a sponge, soaked it in the water, and started scrubbing. She tried not to think about at what she was scrubbing off; the thought made her a bit queasy.

After that was done, she quickly put it on the shower pole to dry and emptied the sink. She refilled the sink once more and pulled out the next item: Aragorn's leather jerkin. She frowned. She didn't know how to wash leather, though she was pretty sure that you couldn't do it with regular soap. She sighed and let it hang with the undergarments on the shower.

She took out the next item… pants. Thankfully not leather like the jerkin, but still as smelly. She cleaned it as quickly as possible, not thinking about what lovely things had gotten onto them over the passage of time. She followed this exact same process with the shirt and socks (both which smelled absolutely terrible and made Mandy feel sick), and then she took out the last three items: the belt, the duster, and the cloak. The belt and duster she simply folded and put on the side, but the cloak she held out for a better look. It definitely was one interesting piece of clothing. It was very soft and smooth to the touch, despite its scratchy look, and she noted that she really could not tell the color of the article of the clothing. It seemed gray, but at different angles it looked different shades of gray, and she was pretty sure it was not just the lighting that did this.

Her eyes came to the leaf pin, and she gently touched it. Her heart jumped up and down in her chest. She was holding a real elven cloak, woven by Galadriel and her handmaidens. The thought was absolutely thrilling. Mandy gently folded the cloak, but did not settle it down by the duster and belt on the floor. She instead held it close to her chest for a moment, and then finally set it down on the counter. It really was quite a precious thing.

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a loud knocking at the door. She slightly jumped, and then frowned.

"What?" she yelled.

"Can I use the bathroom?" she heard Summer yell from behind the door.

"Use the other one!" Mandy shouted back, annoyed at her.

"But-"

"Go!"

She heard Summer's footsteps go down the hall and into her bedroom. Satisfied, Mandy cleaned up the counter and finally exited the bathroom. In her own room she did not hear any water running and assumed that Aragorn was done with his shower. But instead of heading over to her room to see if he needed anything, she went to the living room to see how Legolas and the girls were doing.

The sight before her eyes was definitely unexpected.

Legolas and five girls were all crowded around a game board; Monopoly, to be precise. Abs was currently pouting as Mari took some of her cash, while Legolas was rolling the dice. He got a '5' and moved his piece, the horse, five places and landed on 'Go to Jail'. Brittany then grabbed his piece and moved it to 'Jail'.

"Why did you do that?" Legolas asked her.

"You landed on jail. You go to jail," Brittany explained quickly. "We explained jail earlier, remember? It's not that difficult, really…"

"My turn!" Alex said, rolling the dice. She landed on 'Community Chest', and quickly read the card. "Ha! You all owe me fifty bucks!"

"What? Let me see that," Becky demanded, nearly ripping the card from her hand. "That's so not fair! I refuse to pay you fifty bucks!"

"You have to. It's the rules," Alex insisted.

"No I don't. I can… I can go on strike!" Becky said.

"No you can't."

"Yes I can."

"No you can't."

"Yes I can."

"No you-"

"Whose turn is it?" Mari interrupted.

"Summer's," Legolas said, handing Alex one of the blue fifty dollar bills. When Becky saw this, she immediately followed, thus ending her little 'strike'.

Mandy counted the people around the game board, and then counted again. Six… she was sure there was one missing… wait a minute…

"Where is Summer?" Mandy demanded.

Brittany looked up. "Oh, hello Mandy… uhm… she said she needed to go to the bathroom."

"The bathroom? But I…" Mandy became silent as she suddenly realized where she had sent Summer just a few minutes ago. "Shit," she muttered under her breath, ignored the look Legolas gave her, and dashed to her bedroom.

O0O0O0O

"Lalalalala…" Summer sang as she entered Mandy's bedroom. She headed to the bathroom door, yet when she turned the handle, she found that the door was locked. Annoyed, she loudly knocked on the door. "I need to go!" she shouted at whoever was behind the door. She could not remember if anyone had left during the Monopoly game, but whoever it was, it didn't matter. She _really_ needed to go.

She heard a bit of noise behind the closed door, and finally it was opened a couple inches. To her surprise she saw a bit of Aragorn's head peeking out. She had completely forgotten that he was taking a shower… she idly wondered if he was still naked. Immediately she got her thoughts out of the gutter. Now was not the time for that.

"Can I use the bathroom?" she asked him. "Mandy's in the other one."

"Can it not wait?" he asked her.

She frowned. "No, not really… I've got to go."

He also frowned. "If you must leave, can you not use your own bathroom?"

"No, I'm not going like _that_," she explained. "I mean… I've got to use the bathroom. I've really got to go." At his confused frown, she sighed. "You know… I've got to… to use the toilet." His expression didn't change, and she let out a deeper, more frustrated sigh. "Look, can't you just get out?"

"No, I cannot 'just get out'."

"If you're naked, just wrap a towel around you or something. Look, I've really, _really_ got to go! Don't make me start doing the freaking potty dance!" He simply looked at her, and she swore that she saw amusement dancing in his eyes. She was quickly becoming annoyed… Summer was not noted to be one who had a lot of patience.

"Aragorn, do I have to spell it out for you?" He didn't say anything, but instead started to close the door, as if she was just babbling a bunch of nonsense or something. She groaned in frustration, and, slightly raising her voice, she said, "I've got to use the bathroom so I can relieve my bloody bladder! Happy now?"

Aragorn stopped closing the door, looked at the expression on her face, and finally decided to comply with her. He understood what she had said just there, and though he could not comprehend why one would relieve his or herself in the bathing room, he did not argue. He quickly wrapped his towel around his waist, opened the door and let Summer in.

She did not even spare a glance at him as she ran inside and shut the door. He heard a loud banging sound, and then as he heard her sit down he stepped away from the door. It was then that he heard someone running down the hallway, and the bedroom door was yanked open to reveal Mandy.

"Summer, where are- oh. Hello, Aragorn." She ignored the state he was in and concentrated on the wall behind him. "Where's Summer?"

"In the bathroom. She said that she 'had to go'," he explained, trying to ignore the fact that he was clad in nothing but a towel in front of a woman who was young enough to be his granddaughter.

"Right, right," she said, still concentrating on the wall. "Uhm, I washed your clothes, but I haven't dried them yet… uhm…" An uncomfortable silence fell.

Summer then came out of the bathroom, breaking the uncomfortable silence. She looked at Mandy and frowned. "Aragorn didn't know what I meant by 'going to the bathroom'. Think you could possibly teach him some Earth lingo so that doesn't happen again? That was way too close." She then glanced at Aragorn, stared for a moment, let out a high giggle, and ran out of the room. Both adults could hear her screaming at the others that Aragorn was only in a towel. Before the others could come to see, Mandy quickly locked her bedroom door. Though both swore that they heard loud, elvish laughter coming from the living room at Summer's comment.

"Erm, right… you… uhm… you better just go to the bathroom right now. I'll… uhm… I'll dry your clothes and bring them to you." Before he could even answer, she quickly left the room and immediately shut the door behind her.

"That was embarrassing," she muttered to herself. "I can only imagine what that man is thinking right now…" At that thought, she let out a low chuckle. "Oh boy. And to think that there are still many hours of daylight left…" At that thought, she burst out laughing, and shaking her head, she went back to the bathroom to dry Aragorn's clothes. She had a feeling he didn't want to wear either the towel or the modern clothes for the rest of the night…


	12. Chapter 12

Hey! Thanks for the 30 individuals that read the last chapter, and to the 2 that actually reviewed! ;-) But really, I'm glad this story actually gets so many hits.

OT, but to all of those who were affected by the hurricane Katrina: you are in my thoughts and prayers. It is absolutely devastating.

Anyways, enjoy, and, if so inclined, leave a review :-)

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Chapter Twelve 

'_The day was definitely interesting_,' Mandy thought to herself later that night as she lay in bed.

After that uncomfortable experience with Aragorn, she had headed towards the living room and threatened Summer that she would send her home. Summer hadinsisted that she had no other choice and that she had forgotten about Aragorn being in there. Surprisingly enough, Legolas had defended her, and finally she had given in to all of their pleas to let the odd girl stay. Afterwards, she had not regretted it, as Summer was unnaturally calmer and more in control of herself and actually acted like she was the eldest of the girls (which she actually was… but usually her carefree attitude made her seem the youngest).

After that Mandy had gone back to the bathroom to dry off Aragorn's clothes with a blow dryer. Tedious and long, yes, but she was not going to risk going to the apartment laundry room with a bunch of men's clothing in her arms.

After Aragorn was finally dressed in his washed clothing, he had asked for his leather jerkin and belt. The belt she had given to him, but the jerkin…

"I don't know how I can clean it," she had told him. "It still smells and I don't want you getting your shirt dirty so soon after getting it cleaned." Before he had responded, she had cut him off. "How about this: I go to the store, buy something that will clean leather, and then you can wear that and your duster? What about it?"

Aragorn had agreed to that, and after making a few arrangements and giving a few instructions to the group (many being along the lines of "You don't listen to the elf and ranger, you are dead."), she had left to the store. There she had found someone who could assist her… unfortunately, the assistant was a bit annoying.

"What type of leather?" he had asked.

"Uh… I don't know…"

"Well, different types of leather are cleaned in different ways-"

"Can you clean it with soap?"

"Well, you may be able to use some type of moisturizing soap if the leather is finished, but if it is unfinished-"

"Look. I just need something that will clean leather."

"Is the leather unfinished or finished?"

"I… I don't know! Can't you just give me all the cleaning supplies necessary for cleaning all types of leather?"

"Well, I am not sure, for if you clean unfinished leather with moisturizing soap, it might ruin the leather; I think maybe you should just try and describe the leather you are cleaning?"

At this point Mandy had felt like choking the man, but she controlled herself. "A medieval leather jerkin and duster. Now can you please tell me what I can use for that?"

The man had looked at her strangely. "Medieval clothing? Why do you need-"

"Can you stop questioning me and just give me the damn supplies?" Mandy said through clenched teeth.

The man simply ignored that statement. "Well, medieval clothing… I don't think that would be finished… so unfinished it is! You would need some saddle soap and a type of leather preservative, such as-"

"Where can I find the stuff?"

"Oh, well… we don't sell it here."

It had taken all of Mandy's self control to not kill the man right on the spot.

She had gone to another store where she did find the items she needed to clean the leather. She also found other things that they were going to need: toothbrushes, more toothpaste, shaving cream, another razor, men's deodorant, and other supplies. When she had finally reached her apartment again, over an hour had passed since she had left. She hoped that Aragorn and Legolas were alright.

When she had gone inside, she had found the girls, Aragorn, and Legolas all on the floor, eating chips and playing Monopoly. She also had caught them in an argument.

"I _know_ you took away a fifty from me, Alex. Now give it back!"

"I did not take your fifty, Brittany!" Alex had screamed back.

"Yes you did!"

"No I didn't!"

"Yes you-"

"Brittany, I did not see her take it," Legolas had said.

"Yea, he didn't see, and neither did anyone else!"

"I know you took it! Just because no one saw does not mean that you didn't take it!"

"This is just a game; I hardly think it's worth shouting about," Aragorn put in diplomatically.

Mari had gasped. "Just a game? Are you kidding? It's control of the whole world of Monopoly! Nothing like this is ever just a game!"

"I have to agree with Aragorn," Mandy had said. "Now go and play something else; I swear I have no idea how you girls remain friends with all of your petty arguments. Clean this up and go do something in Brittany's room. Now."

Thus the Monopoly game had ended. No one ever found out if Alex had actually stolen Brittany's fifty, and no one ever shall.

The rest of the day had gone by calmly. Mandy had given Aragorn the supplies he needed to clean his leather clothing, trusting in him to know what he needed to do. She had kept Legolas with her in the living room and told the girls to just stay in Brittany's room and to leave the two alone so they could rest a bit. Thankfully they pretty much listened to her.

For dinner she had ordered three large pizzas. The reaction from Aragorn and Legolas when they took their first bites were interesting, to say the least.

"What is this?" Legolas had asked.

"Pizza," Mandy had responded.

"… pizza?"

"Yup. Cheese, tomato sauce, some type of bread, all heated up and made into a pizza. Try it, it's good. Almost as good as coffee."

Both Aragorn and Legolas had looked at the seven ladies, all gulping down the pizza faster than seemed healthy, and had tentatively taken a bite themselves. Aragorn's reaction was good; Legolas' reaction, however, was not. While Aragorn immediately had taken another slice once his first piece was done, Legolas had eaten perhaps half of his own piece before Mandy had noticed that he did not like it.

"You can have something else if you don't like it, Legolas," she had said.

Legolas immediately shook his head. "Oh, no, it is quite alright-"

"Don't give me that crap, Legolas. You don't like it, that's ok. Hold on, I'll give you something else…" She had then stood up and went to the cupboards, where she had found sometin cupsof peaches and an apple. "I know that you elves don't need to eat as much as humans. But if you need anything else, don't hesitate to ask me, or even to go look for something yourself." Legolas had then simply smiled and bowed his head in defeat, and had eaten what Mandy had given him.

After dinner she had sent the girls back to Brittany's room, and after much begging and pleading, she had let Aragorn and Legolas go with them if they wanted. The two were extremely amused by the girls and obliged, and after they had left the living room, Mandy had plopped down on the couch and watched some TV. However, she had found that she could not concentrate on it and was extremely tired, so after a while she had turned off the television set and headed towards her room. She told Aragorn and Legolas where they could sleep for the night, along with specific instructions for the girls to not bother them or her while they all slept. She hoped they would listen, for she had a feeling that both the ranger and the elf needed a good night's rest.

And now she laid in her bed, and though she knew that she was tired, she found that she could not fall asleep. Too many things were running through her mind. How in the world did Aragorn and Legolas come to Earth? What has really happened to all of the fan fiction? What made the computers act up like that? Why in the world were Aragorn and Legolas captured by orcs in Middle-earth? What did her dreams really mean? It was driving her mad.

Finally, after many minutes of trying to think of a solution and not coming up with one, her thoughts quieted and she fell into an uneasy sleep.

O0O0O0O

"What… interesting children," Legolas finally commented to his friend once they were alone in the guest bedroom.

"Quite," Aragorn replied, sitting down on the edge of the bed

The two had just escaped from Brittany's bedroom. For about an hour they had told stories of their travels together in Middle-earth while the girls had listened without interrupting. Then the girls had showed them some of the modern items such as the telephone and told them how it worked. At one point they started listening to various types of music (though Aragorn and Legolas would hardly call half the stuff they heard music), and then Becky had asked Legolas to sing. Naturally all of the girls wanted to hear Legolas sing, and so he had given in to their wishes and sang a song about Elbereth.

The song and his voice had moved the girls to tears. It was at this moment that both Aragorn and Legolas had found the perfect moment to call it a night and leave. And now both were in the guest bedroom, finally alone to talk with one another.

"I would hardly call those loud sounds that they listen to 'music', however," Legolas said to his friend.

"Aye. I do believe you showed them some true music, my friend." Aragorn's face split into a grin.

"Indeed," said Legolas. He went over to the bed and picked up one of his knives, and then looked back to Aragorn. "I still find it odd that you did not come here with not even Andúril while I came here with all of my weapons."

Aragorn nodded. "So do I. I feel oddly bare without my blade by my side." He then turned and concentrated on Legolas' face. "What did the orcs do to you, mellon nin?"

"Nothing I cannot handle," Legolas replied lightly. "What about you?"

"Nothing I cannot handle," Aragorn rebutted just as lightly. "Though honestly it did not look like the orcs were gentle with you."

"I never said they were," Legolas retorted. "I just said that it was nothing I cannot handle."

Aragorn raised an eyebrow. "Indeed? Is that why you were unconscious?" Legolas just smiled at him and Aragorn rolled his eyes. "You're hopeless."

"Just as hopeless as you," Legolas said, now grinning.

Aragorn sighed, shook his head, and then got off the bed. "We should go to sleep. You can have the bed."

"It's quite alright; you can have the bed," Legolas said, getting off of it as well.

"No, really, you can have the bed," Aragorn said back, taking off his jerkin and rolling it up into a pillow.

Legolas threw one of the pillows on the bed to the floor. "I insist: you have the bed."

"You have it."

"I am an elf; I do not need it."

"But you are a prince, and thus deserve the bed."

"You are the rightful king of Men; you deserve the bed much more than I."

"I'm not king yet, so you are still of higher rank and deserve the bed."

"You are still Isildur's heir."

"I am still not king."

"But you are a human and need it more than I."

"I am also a Ranger and have been sleeping on the ground for most of my life."

"Still, you are human and I am an elf."

"You've already used the 'I'm an elf' argument more times than is necessary."

"You have used the 'I'm not king' argument more times than is necessary."

"Have not."

"Have too."

"Have not."

"Have too."

"This is extremely pointless."

"Yes it is."

"So we should stop and you shall have the bed, elf."

"No, you shall, human."

"You."

"You."

They argued for about five more minutes until finally Aragorn lost and got the bed. Legolas found the 'I am an elf and thus the better candidate to sleep on the floor' argument quite useful.

"But you shall be sleeping on it tomorrow," Aragorn said as he got under the covers.

"Perfectly fine by me," Legolas replied, turning off the light as Brittany had showed him in her own room.

"I mean it."

"Of course."

Aragorn overcame the temptation to throw his pillow at Legolas and simply settled for a growl. He ignored Legolas' laughter.

"Good night, you foolish elf."

"Good night, mellon nin."

There was silence in the room for about five minutes.

"Aragorn?"

"Yes, elf?"

"Stop calling me elf."

"What should I call you? Dwarf?"

"I think 'Legolas' would do."

Aragorn chuckled. "All right, Legolas. What is it?"

"How do you think all of this is happening?"

Aragorn knew exactly what he meant. "I am not sure, my friend."

"Do you believe that they are all related? All the events taking place here and in Middle-earth?"

"Do you?"

Legolas was silent. Aragorn was going to ask the question again when Legolas finally replied, "Yes."

Aragorn nodded, and then remembered that the elf could not see him in the dark. "I see." He was silent. "But as it is, I am too weary to bother about it right now. Let us get some rest."

"Good night, then, Aragorn."

"Good night."

Slowly, but surely, both fell into an uneasy sleep.

And as the three adults in this household slept, all three were plagued by nightmares beyond their wildest dreams.


	13. Chapter 13

Hey! Sorry for such the long wait; school is murder. I believe this story will be around 20 to 22 chapters long (I finally have a complete outline of what will happen, LOL).

Anyways, I just wanted to say to **_Lunasariel_** that Mandy lives in an urbanized area, but more like a large town than a city. And Legolas has not yet been outside, so I have yet to determine if there are enough pollutants in the air to bother him.

Anyways, hope you enjoy the chapter! Reviews are extremely appreciated!

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Chapter Thirteen

When Legolas awoke, he was surprised to find himself in an immense amount of pain. Pain was the only thing he could register and, if he was being truthful to himself, it was annoying. He did not know why he was in pain and most unfortunately he could do nothing about the pain, considering the fact that he seemed to have lost all other senses.

Soon enough, though, another sensation came to him: movement. He realized he was moving at a fast speed. As this realization hit him, there were others to quickly follow: the wind on his face, the tight bonds around his wrists and ankles, and the fact that his leg was not only in pain, but also felt as if it were burning. That was not a good sign.

But past all this, the thing he noticed most was the awful stench. It made him feel absolutely sick; he felt as if he were back with the orcs-

He opened his eyes as reality hit him. He was not with Mandy anymore. He was once more in Middle-earth in the company of the orcs, with one of them carrying him. This terrible realization brought Legolas to curse in his native tongue before he remembered to keep his mouth shut.

The orc, to his relief, did not hear him; after all, the elf had no desire to arose any of the orcs' attention to him once more. The previous beating had been quite unpleasant, and it would be better for him to be silent and observant, slung over the back of an orc, while resting his leg and regaining his strength.

Legolas mentally winced as he thought about his burning leg. It was probably infected due to bad treatment; hopefully the orcs were not stupid enough to poison him. After all, if Sauron did want him alive, it would not be beneficial to them if he was poisoned and died before they even reached Mordor.

Legolas tried to keep his thoughts off of his leg and instead focused on the other parts of the unfortunate situation. He was back in Middle-earth, once more with the orcs. It was perhaps an hour until dawn, and, from what he could see from his position, the orcs were trekking through a bit of mud. He resisted the urge to wrinkle his nose in disgust. But other than the bit of slush that covered the ground, he could see no more of his surroundings.

His thoughts started to trail, trying to come up with answers as to why he was back there again. Unfortunately, he could think of nothing.

Suddenly there was a loud commotion ahead, and the orc that held him abruptly stopped in his tracks, causing the elf to jolt and let out a small moan of pain. Legolas immediately regretted it when the orc stiffened and let out a yell in his foul tongue. The call was answered, and Legolas found himself being carried over past other orcs and to the front of the group.

There he was dropped mercilessly on the ground, but this time Legolas withheld any sounds that showed that he was in pain. He did his best to ignore his pounding head, aching back, burning leg, and other various hurts as he observed his surroundings.

The ground was a bit muddy and damp, which would have annoyed the elf in all other circumstances. However, right now the cool, soft ground felt good on his sore and aching body. He noticed that his wounds were bound with dirty rags, and he grimaced. Surely he would get infections now.

Surrounding him were many filthy orcs, and beyond them was miles and miles of marshland. The gloomy marshes looked all the more gloomier given that the sun did not shine through the dark clouds that covered the sky. In the distance he could make out a mountain range, and the elf suppressed a shudder. The Ered Lithui, or the Ash Mountains in the Common Tongue; the mountains that bordered the northern edge of Mordor.

But that sight did not hold his attention long as another figure was dropped beside him in the mud. It was Aragorn, and he did not look good at all. His face and arms were covered in bruises and his body was bound with dirty rags. The few incisions Legolas could see looked painful. But even though he had all these wounds, the Ranger's eyes were open and observing.

The orcs that had brought the both of them to the front said a few words in the Black Tongue with the orc captain Thaurkul, pointing at them here and there. Thaurkul growled a couple times and put in a few words himself. Finally, Thaurkul sent the two away and turned to the captives. Behind the captain, Ghâshun and Krimlug sneered at the two prisoners. Legolas and Aragorn simply replied with cold glares.

Thaurkul ignored his men and looked at the two prisoners with disdain. "You've finally come back, eh? Took you long enough." He spat at the ground, and his frown grew deeper. "You two have made us lose quite a bit of time, and my men are not happy. I'd let them have a bit more fun, but we need to get back to Lugbúrz soon and you two need to be alive. But you'll be running the rest of the way!" With that, he snapped the bonds around their ankles, and Ghâshun and Krimlug tugged the unwilling captives up.

Legolas did his best not to put weight on his leg as he was pulled up. He already knew that this would be quite a painful run. If he was to be frank with himself, he was not sure if he would be able to stay up the whole time. But he pushed his own troubles aside and looked to see how his friend fared.

Aragorn swayed a bit, but he kept on his feet. He saw the man's eyes close and a small frown come upon his face. The Ranger probably felt the elf's gaze on him and he turned to face Legolas.

"We're back," he said in Sindarin. Legolas nodded miserably.

"I was hoping that we would never be back with them," he responded in the same language.

"Shut up!" Krimlug ordered them. The two simply gave him icy glares. Before Krimlug could do something about their cold and rebellious attitudes, Thaurkul called out.

"We leave!" he shouted, and the orcs started pushing their captives forward.

O0O0O0O

"Not again," Mandy groaned as she stared up at the bright pink castle. This was really getting annoying.

Once more the young woman was dreaming. Once more she was inside a dark, creepy forest that she did not recognize, right outside the pink castle. She frowned as she looked up at the structure. This was getting very annoying indeed.

She looked around to see if Aragorn and Legolas were with her, and was slightly disappointed to see that she was alone. If she was being truthful to herself, she felt much safer in her odd dreams with one of them present… not that she was scared. Of course she was not scared. It was just a bit too odd for her to handle by herself. In no way was she afraid. Not at all.

She looked at the large, pink doors that led into the structure. They were tall, menacing, and gave her a very bad feeling… she did not know that doors could give such a bad feeling. She sighed, and looked behind her to the dark, menacing forest. She pretty much had only three choices: she could stay where she was, she could go into the dark, menacing forest, or go through the dark, menacing doors.

Already she knew that she did not want to stay where she was… she would get bored quite soon, and she hated it when she was bored. And though both of her other options were dark and menacing, she thought that the forest was much more dark and menacing than the doors. So doors it was.

Taking a deep breath, Mandy climbed the stairs that led to the doors and stopped right in front of them. Perhaps she would find some answers to a few of her questions in here… or perhaps she would die.

'_Stop thinking such morbid thoughts_,' a small part of her mind scolded her. '_Stop it and just open the door._'

She mentally glared at that small part of her mind, sighed once more, and slowly pushed one of the doors open.

O0O0O0O

For hours they ran, never slowing their pace. Never did the dismal scenery change, other than the fact that the Emyn Muil behind them became smaller and the Ered Lithui in front of them became larger. They did not stop at daybreak, for there was no daybreak; dark clouds hid the sun completely from view, and barely any light reached the earth. And so they ran and ran, the orcs trying to make up for all the lost time. The prisoners' escape attempt had cost them quite a bit of time.

Aragorn had no idea how he managed to keep on his feet the whole while. Maybe it was his own stubbornness and determination. Maybe it was his own strength and will. Or maybe it was because the lashes that came down upon him when he slowed really hurt.

The Ranger would have liked to think that the former two were the reasons he was still up. As it was, he had a feeling that the latter was the actual reason he was still on his feet. After all, running hurt a lot less than the whip. Besides, if Legolas could keep up at this pace, he could too.

Aragorn shook himself out of his thoughts and concentrated on running. They were still in the marshlands, so the ground was still a bit soft and he had to focus on not slipping or tripping as he run. In a day or so they would be out of the Nindalf, and then it would only be a couple more days until they reached the Black Gate. Which, of course, was not good at all.

He spared a glance to his friend, who was about ten feet and half a dozen orcs in front of him. He could not see the elf's face, but he could tell that the long run was draining Legolas' strength immensely. This extensive run would not help his wounds heal at all; Legolas needed rest. And if Aragorn was being completely honest with himself, he needed rest as well. This journey was quite arduous for the both of them.

What the Ranger did not understand was why he was back here. After all, was his body not in Mandy's world? He had only experienced times where his body was in Middle-earth and in his dreams he was somewhere else. But at this moment, his body was in two different places. How in Elbereth's name was that possible?

Before he could think more on the topic, a sharp yell rang through his ears, making him jump in surprise. However, the orcs near him did not seem to care about it, for they just kept on running. Aragorn quickly got out of his startled state and continued to run as well, but his brows were furrowed in concern. What in the world was that? And why did his captors act as if they heard nothing?

Suddenly, a pounding headache came to him, and he barely suppressed a cry of pain. Many shouts came into his ears, and he became all confused and disoriented. He barely noticed when he tripped over a stray, dead shrub and fell to the wet ground. Indeed, by the time Aragorn hit the ground, he was lost to the world.

O0O0O0O

It was pink. How surprising.

Those were the first thoughts that came to Mandy's mind as she looked at the large hall she was in. Pretty much everything in the area was pink: walls, furniture, paintings, all of it was pink. All the pink was giving her a bit of a headache, actually… after all, she could only handle so much of such a girlish, bright color. And this was truly overboard.

She hesitantly took a step forward, and was surprised to hear her footstep echo throughout the room, as if the place were real. She frowned, and took another step. Another echo came.

'_This just gets weirder and weirder… now my dreams have sound and volume…_' she thought to herself. Deciding she couldn't really do anything about it, she continued her way forward.

Ahead of her was a large staircase that lead to the second story. On either side of the staircase were two hallways that led deeper into the first floor of the castle. She decided to go up onto the second floor, and slowly headed up the staircase. Once she reached the top, she made a left and explored the halls a bit more.

Other than the fact that it was all pink, nothing really seemed odd about it. Indeed, she soon found herself bored walking through the halls. There was nothing really interesting about them. Of course, hallways in all places usually prove to be boring.

After a few minutes of exploring the second-level halls, Mandy decided there really was nothing to discover in the hallways. If she actually wanted to discover something, she needed to go into a few rooms. Pushing away any thoughts of cautiousness, she turned to the nearest door and opened it.

She looked around the room and blinked. She recognized this room. Yes, this was the exact same room that she had 'woken' up in in her dream a night or two ago. This was the room where she had dreamt of Legolas. Well, at least that answered one question; now she knew for sure that this pink bedroom was in fact a part of the pink castle.

She glanced around the room but soon found that there was nothing remotely interesting about it. She closed the door and headed off to check out some other rooms.

The other rooms proved to be just as boring and uneventful as the pink bedroom. She came across a couple bathrooms, two or three more bedrooms that looked exactly like the first one she came across, and a storage room. All of the rooms had three things in common: they were large, they were clean, and they were pink.

Mandy opened another door and was surprised to find herself in a library. But that was not the part that surprised her… the thing that surprised her was the fact that all of it was _not_ pink. The walls, furniture, and carpets were still pink, but the books on the pink shelves were anything but. Green, blue, red, and other different colors hit her eyes, and she had to rub her eyes to get used to the other colors.

The shelves with these multi-colored books aligned all of the walls. Right in front of her was a sitting area with a few easy chairs and tables, and beyond that was a wooden, pink railing. Passing the sitting area, she went to the banister and her eyes widened as she looked down on the first floor of the library. Shelves and shelves of books covered the place. Never before had she seen so many books inside of a house… it would take years and years for someone to read all of them.

Shaking her head in disbelief, Mandy stepped away from the railing and looked back at the smaller part of the library before her. Her eyes strayed to an open, lone book on a table right by an easy chair, and she headed towards it.

She picked up the book from the table and frowned as she read the title: _The Complete Idiot's Guide to Hacking Computers_. This made things even more confusing. What in the world was a guide to hacking doing in the pink castle? Shrugging to herself, Mandy put the book down and went to the shelves in front of her.

One whole bookcase was dedicated to computers and hacking. She scanned through the titles, the frown on her face growing deeper and deeper: _How to Hack_, _Hacking for Dummies_, _Computer Hacking is Your Friend_, _Hacking: A New Hobby_… Her eyes skimmed through other titles, and by the time she reached the bottom shelf, she was shaking her head in disgust. _Hack, Hack, Hack!_, _Famous Hackers and Their Stories_, _Computers/Hacking OTP_, _The Lord of the Rings_, _John Doe MCMXCVIII and His Guide to Hacking_, _Hacking and You_-

She blinked, and backtracked a few titles to read one that was out of place: _The Lord of the Rings_. '_What in the world is that book doing here?_' she thought, and peered closer at it.'_And why in the world is it pink?_' Never had Mandy seen a pink edition of Tolkien's novel before. '_Maybe it's from the sixties or something…_' Still frowning, she went to pull the book out of the bookshelf.

The book, however, refused to come out of the shelf. Still frowning, she tried to pull it out again, and yet it would not budge. Growling in frustration, the young woman gave a hard yank, and the book fell on its spine, but refused to come out.

Before Mandy could give another yank, the bookcase started to move. Yelping in surprise, she jumped back as the bookcase started to shift and groan. She watched in amazement as it swung sideways, revealing a dark secret passageway. The bookcase finally came to a halt; it had turned ninety degrees so it was against the right side of the secret passage wall. The pink _Lord of the Rings_ book still stuck out.

The young woman cautiously approached the passageway and peered into it. There was nothing disconcerting about it, if she ignored the fact that it _was_ a secret passage. After a moment of staring into it and nothing happening, Mandy decided to do one of the bravest things she had ever done in her lifetime: enter a dark, scary, secret passage alone. Taking a deep breath and ignoring the alarm bells ringing in her head, she entered the passageway.

Soon it became completely pitch black and Mandy thought about turning around to explore a part of the castle that was not so dark and creepy. '_After all, it is not as if any answers to my questions will be found in here…_' said a part of her mind to her.

'_Stop kidding yourself,_' said another part of her mind. '_Of course this secret passageway has some answers… after all, it is secret._'

'_It's too dark in here. Let's turn back._'

'_Don't be a coward and just continue._'

'_Don't be stupid and turn back._'

'_Don't be stupid and keep going._'

"Shut up, both of you," she growled. "You're making me feel crazy." Both parts of her mind quieted.

She thought for a minute more before deciding to continue on. After all, it _was_ just a dream… nothing could hurt her in a dream.

'_A dream with sound and depth,_' said the first part of her mind once more.

'_She told us to shut up._'

'_I'm just saying-_'

"Do you want to send me to the psychiatric ward?" she screamed in frustration. "Now go away! I don't need two parts of my mind debating right now!" Once more her mind quieted.

"I'm going on," she muttered out loud, "and no one will stop me."

Her mind remained silent. Satisfied, she continued down the corridor.

Mandy soon came upon a spiraling staircase, and she blindly made her way up, careful to not trip in the dark. Slowly she ascended the stairs, and they spiraled higher and higher until the young woman was sure that she was a good few stories higher than the second level. Finally, the stairway stopped at a wooden door. She pushed it open, and a sudden onslaught of light came at her. It took Mandy a few moments and quite a few blinks to be able to see once more. And once her sight was back, the room before her was not at all what she had suspected.

She was in a round room; most likely a room in a tower. A large, glassless window was the only thing that lit the room, and currently sunlight was shinning right through it. Opposite of the window was a pink desk with many light pink papers covering it, along with a pink lamp and a few pink pens. And right in front of her was a computer. However, it was not just any computer; it was the computer that she used in the Control Room at her work.

Mandy went over to the computer and inspected it, and after a few moments she realized that it was not _her_ computer, but one of the exact same make, and assumedly with the exact same functions. She was not exactly sure what this meant yet, but she was sure that it was important.

She glanced out of the window, and the young woman noticed that she was currently _above_ the treetops. She stepped away from the computer and went to the window to get a better look.

She felt a gush of cool air on her face as she stuck part of her head out of the window. Indeed, she was above the treetops of the forest. Looking down, she saw that the dark, thick branches prevented almost all light from streaming to the forest floor. She directed her attention away from the trees and to the landscape surrounding her. Mandy saw that the forest continued in all the ways she could see for quite a while. However, all parts ended at one point. The large forest ended when it hit large mountain ranges to both her left and right. Ahead, though, the forest ended when it reached another castle.

She blinked. Another castle. That means that she wasn't alone in this place! Smiling at the thought, she squinted so she could make out the castle better. It was big, very big, and oddly it looked familiar…

Her mouth slightly dropped open as she recognized the castle. No, it was impossible… it was just _not_ possible…

Before she could continue her chain of thought, a dark shape suddenly appeared in the sky. She frowned as she tried to make it out, but before she could, a sudden coldness came to her. Never before had she felt so cold; both her body and her mind went completely numb, and she got the odd feeling of complete sadness. She got the feeling that she would never be happy again.

And as the dark shape was but a few feet away from the tower, Mandy's earlier suspicions were proven true. She knew exactly where she was, and what that dark shape but feet away from her was.

And as it slowly lowered its hood, Mandy let out a piercing scream, and she knew no more.


	14. Chapter 14

Sorry it took so long to get a chapter up! School has been literally killing me... you would not believe the amount of work I get. Anyways, if there is anyone still reading this, I'd love a review. But thanks for your patience; here's a nice, lengthy chapter! Review or not, please enjoy!

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"Help! Help!"

"Oh God, what's happening?"

"Legolas!"

"Aragorn!"

"Help!"

"Mandy!"

Aragorn and Legolas immediately woke up when they heard all six of the girls shouting for help. Immediately forgetting about their small visit to Middle-earth, the two warriors were standing and sprinted out of thef bedroom and into the hallway. Legolas had out his knives, and Aragorn had grabbed the nearest heavy object in the room, which happened to be a large book. What they saw outside of their bedroom door was chaos.

Brittany was pounding on Mandy's bedroom door, which Mandy always locked when she went to bed. Alex tried to help her by kicking and throwing herself against the door, but the door didn't budge. Summer was trying to calm down Mari and Becky who were both panicking. Abs had the phone in her hand, trying to dial 9-1-1 but in her panic could not push the buttons correctly. When she saw Aragorn and Legolas, she immediately dropped the phone and rushed over to them.

"Something's happening! She's screaming!" Abs yelled in a high voice, shaking with terror.

As if on cue, a scream came from Mandy's bedroom. Aragorn and Legolas needed no more.

Shoving their way down the hallway, they came to Mandy's door and stopped Brittany and Alex from trying to break their way through. Aragorn handed Alex the book he had grabbed, stepped a few feet from the door, and kicked it with all his strength. The door sprang open with a loud noise, and Legolas was in the room first, knives brandished. Aragorn was immediately beside him, and crowded behind both of them were the six teenagers.

The two warriors looked for any intruders, but found none. Instead, they found Mandy thrashing in her covers, and once more a scream came from her lips.

Brittany shoved her way past them all and was immediately by Mandy's bedside, shaking her awake. Tears were streaming down her face as she called out for the older woman to wake up; never before had she seen her guardian like this. Aragorn and Legolas also came to the bedside, while the others stood by the doorway. Mari and Summer held each other close, while the others huddled around them; all of the girls had terrified expressions on their faces, and a couple of them had a few tears. Never before had they seen anything like this. Just minutes ago they were talking and whispering to one another, trying to come up with ways to make their lust object hug or kiss them. Mari was explaining a complicated plan about torturing them with pickles and Britney Spears when the screams had started.

First they could not place who was screaming, but they soon figured out that it was Mandy. It was then that they had started shouting for help and tried to pound the door open. All of them had terrifying images of what could be happening to her.

And now Brittany was trying to get her to wake, but the woman would not come out of her deep, fitful sleep. The young girl could see that Mandy's forehead was beaded with sweat, and that her face was contorted with pain. Brittany tried to shake and call to her again; her tears became faster and made her sight blurry. When Mandy would not wake, Brittany stuttered, "She won't wake up! Why will she not wake up? Oh God, oh God, oh God…" she muttered, her whole body shuddering.

Legolas shot Aragorn a look, and Aragorn nodded. Legolas put his arms around the girl and held her tight as Isildur's heir sat down on the side of Mandy's bed. He gently, but firmly took one of her hands into his left, and laid his right hand on her brow. The Ranger closed his eyes, and started muttering Elvish under his breath.

Except for the occasional sniffle, the room was completely silent as Aragorn tried to bring Mandy into the waking world. He desperately wished he had athelas to aid him, but as he did not he had to work without it. Thoroughly he searched through the dark fog that covered the woman's mind, looking for that part of her that would take her away from the dark dreams she was having. As he searched, the others in the room could see that Mandy was not thrashing about as much, yet the Ranger himself was becoming pale and weary in the face.

Suddenly, a small gasp was emitted from Mandy's lips as her eyes flew open. Her eyes searched frantically about, and she soon saw the man looking down upon her. Confusion came to her, but she then recalled the incidents earlier and remembered that Aragorn and Legolas were now with her. And as she focused on him, she saw that his eyes were filled with concern.

"Are you alright?" he asked quietly.

"I… I am-" Mandy stuttered shakily, "I'm not sure." She noticed that her breathing was fast, yet she could not find the will to calm herself down. Aragorn saw this and he set his hand upon her forehead. The young woman suddenly felt herself calm down, but as she calmed, Aragorn became paler. Legolas, making sure that Brittany was all right, went to support the Dúnadan as the man became faint.

Mandy saw Aragorn's distress, and momentarily forgot about her own horrors as she looked up at the Ranger. "Aragorn? Are you all right?"

Aragorn steadied himself, using his friend and the bed as support, and he gave a small nod. "I shall be fine." Closing his eyes and ignoring his small headache, he asked, "May one of you retrieve a glass of water for Mandy?" When he heard no movement behind him, he turned his head about and looked at the five girls. "Now, if you would," he softly commanded.

It was as if Aragorn had shouted an order at them. The girls finally got out of their stupor and all of them turned for the door.

"Only one of you needs to do it," Aragorn said, slight sarcasm in his voice. One could not blame him for his slightly short temper, considering the circumstances.

"I'll go," Becky said, and she went out of the room to retrieve some water.

Aragorn, satisfied, turned back to Mandy. As he was giving out the order for water, Brittany had rushed to the bed and was currently clutching onto Mandy so tightly that it was as if that she would die if she let go.

"Oh Mandy, I'm so glad you're okay!" Brittany nearly cried into Mandy's shoulder. Mandy just held her, comforting the girl as best she could. Legolas, Aragorn, and the rest of the girls stood quietly beside them, the girls still by the door and the two warriors by the bed.

Finally, Brittany loosened her grasp, a concerned expression upon her face. "What happened, Mandy? You were thrashing around and screaming and… you really scared me. What was happening?"

Mandy closed her eyes to hide the pain and fear that she felt within that realistic dream. It was… terrifying. Absolutely horrifying. She was not sure if she could even describe it, especially to Brittany.

Before she could answer, Becky came back into the room with two glasses of cold water in her hands. She gave one to Aragorn and one to Mandy. "You look really pale, I thought you would need one," Becky explained to Aragorn's quizzical look. Aragorn nodded his thanks and drank down the ice-cold water, and Mandy did the same.

After they were done, Brittany looked at Mandy, expecting an answer. "Mandy, please tell me…" she whispered, concern etched across her face. Mandy took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. After a moment, she nodded.

"Alright…" She took another deep breath. "It was… odd. Very odd. I was once again at the pink castle-"

All of a sudden, there was a loud knock on the door, and everyone jumped.

"Shit!" Summer shouted. She realized what she had said when eight pairs of eyes were staring at her. "Oh… umm, sorry. I'll… I'll go get that." With that, she span and ran to get the door.

"Who in the world would be here at this hour?" Mandy muttered.

"I shall go and see as well," Aragorn said, and he quickly left the room.

In the front hall there was another knock, and Summer peeked out of the peephole of the door. Again she cursed; it was someone she would recognize any day.

She opened the door and gave the person a charming smile. "Hello. What can I do for you, officers? Is there a problem?"

The policemen outside of the doorway glanced at the girl, and then behind her at the apartment, as if they expected there was something going on in there. When they saw nothing, they turned back to the teenager.

"We received complaints of screams and loud noises coming from this apartment just a few minutes ago," said one of them, and then he frowned. "Are your parents home?"

"Oh, yes, my parents… umm, yes, they are, but they're busy," Summer quickly said.

The second officer raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "I… see. May we come in?"

"Umm…" Summer started, but she realized that they were not paying attention to her anymore. Instead, they were staring right behind her, looks of disbelief written on their faces. She turned around, and thankfully did not curse this time. A few feet away, standing right by the entrance to the hallway, was Aragorn. And he was giving them a hard, even glare.

"Is everything well?" the Ranger asked Summer, yet keeping his eyes at the two men outside of the door.

"Yes, everything's fine…" Summer said. She turned back to the policemen, and she could see that they would definitely find a way in if they did not get a reasonable explanation for the noise and the reason why there was a grown man dressed as if he lived 100s of years ago. It was then that she had a stroke of genius.

"I am really sorry for the noise, officers, but we were practicing for our play."

The first officer rose an eyebrow. "Play?"

"Err, yes, play. You see my… dad here, yea, my father here is a main character, and he had to practice a battle scene with another main character." The police officers still looked unconvinced. "You see, we have our opening play early tomorrow afternoon, and it's about three hours from here. We had to practice tonight because we won't have any time tomorrow. I suppose we lost track of time; we were just so into it, you know!" Summer really hoped that her lie sounded convincing.

After a few seconds, the second officer asked, "What play?"

She said the first thing that came to mind. "Tolkien." They gave her blank looks. "We're doing… _The Hobbit_. Yea, it's really neat. My dad's playing… Bard… yes; Bard is a quiet, grim man. Whenever my dad's in costume, he always acts as his character… which is why he is quiet and grim." She gave them a big smile.

Finally, they seemed to take her word for it. "All right, then, but keep it down!" said the first officer. "The neighbors upstairs complained that it was extremely loud."

"We shall! Have a good night, officers!" She smiled, and then shut the door. Once that was done, she gave a big sigh of relief. "That was close," she muttered.

"Who were they?" asked Aragorn.

"Policemen." He gave her a blank look. "People who enforce the law," she explained. "Like guards of Minas Tirith… only without armor." She shrugged.

He slowly nodded, and then frowned. "'Dad'?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I know you are old enough to be my grandfather, or even great-grandfather, but seriously, no one here looks as good as you at 87," she said with a shrug.

"That is not the point," he argued.

"It was the first thing I could come up with!" she stressed out. "Besides, what would you have had me say? 'Oh, him, he's Aragorn; he's from another world. He's also the heir of a throne or two.' Seriously, they would've put me in the loony bin!" When she saw the look on his face, she frowned. "What's so funny?"

Aragorn simply smiled, and started heading again towards Mandy's room.

Summer mumbled under her breath as she quickly followed him.

O0O0O0O

After Summer and Aragorn explained what had happened at the door, Mandy started to tell the rest of them her dream. She was sitting up in her bed, a warm robe around her, and the girls were gathered around her, the two warriors right behind them. She was now recalling what she had seen in the tower.

"So as I realized what castle I looked upon, a black shape flew to me." She shuddered as she thought about it.

"What did you see?" Brittany asked. "Was that what made you scream?"

Mandy shuddered again. "Yes. It was… well, I do not know what they are called, but they are…" She took a deep breath and looked at each of the people that surrounded her. Aragorn and Legolas, both with obvious concern on their faces, and Brittany with all of her friends, looks of anticipation, concern, and fear all mixed together. Her glance then went to Alex, and her eyes dropped to her hands.

"_Harry Potter_," she muttered.

Alex blinked. "I'm not Harry Potter."

"No, the book you're holding," she said, pointing the book that Aragorn had handed the girl. "_Harry Potter_."

Alex frowned and looked down. "Oh. Yes. Aragorn came out of the room with it." Still frowning, she turned to the Ranger. "Why were you carrying a book around?"

Aragorn suddenly found eight pairs of inquisitive eyes on him. "Well, when I heard screaming, I grabbed the nearest heavy object, as I do not have my sword with me…" he explained, trying his best to ignore Legolas' gaze.

Legolas was trying but miserably failing to keep a large smile off his face. "Yes; after all, a book is quite a formidable weapon." The girls started snickering while Aragorn simply narrowed his eyes.

Mandy, however, was still staring at the book. "Alex, may I please see the book?" she asked, her voice slightly shaking. Alex, though a bit confused, nevertheless complied and handed Mandy the novel.

Mandy skipped through the book, glancing at sections here and there. She then flipped to Chapter Five and stopped. There was her answer.

"A dementor," she whispered quietly. "After I saw the castle in the distance… the castle that was unmistakably the Hogwarts castle from the movies… a dementor came flying at me."

There was a loud silence throughout the room. Though outsiders wonder how in the world it would be possible to have a loud silence, those that experience it would know it in an instant. This type of silence continued.

Finally, Legolas spoke. "Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is a 'dementor' and 'Hogwarts'?"

"A dementor is a creature from the series _Harry Potter_," Alex quickly explained, "and Hogwarts is the castle that all the young wizards in Britain go to." Before either of the warriors could question further, Alex continued, "But if it was really a dementor, you wouldn't have been able to see it. You're a Muggle, Mandy. Muggles can't see dementors. And besides, dementors don't fly. They glide."

"What is a Mug-" Aragorn started, but Abs interrupted.

"Maybe it's a movie dementor," she said. "I mean, they were flying all around in the film, and we never saw them with Muggles."

"Yea, but still," Alex argued, "it doesn't make sense… why would it be a dementor?"

"You're not a large fan of _Harry Potter_, are you, Mandy?" Brittany asked.

Mandy shook her head. "No. I read up to the fourth book, and saw all the movies once or twice, but I do not know much about the world. But I know what I saw," she said when Alex was about to argue once again. "It was Hogwarts, and it was a dementor coming at me. And when it came to the window…" Her voice failed her and she looked down at her blankets. She took a deep breath, and looked up at all of them. The group around her could see the fear in her eyes. "What I felt was unimaginable. I felt as if… as if…"

"As if you'd never be happy again," Brittany put in quietly. Mandy slowly nodded.

"It was a terrible feeling. But it then just became worse. The dementor lifted its hood… and… it began to put his mouth to my lips… it was then that I started to scream. I tried to run away, kick at it, punch it, anything, but I was completely immobile. And when it touched me… it was as if my heart was being ripped out of my chest." She grew silent, and her eyes grew wet. Aggravated, she wiped her face to stop the involuntary tears, and was disturbed to find that her hand had begun to shake once more.

Brittany sat down beside her and grabbed her hand. She silently stroked it, and the rest of the group remained silent as Brittany tried to help her guardian calm down. After a few moments, her shakings were quelled.

Mandy took a deep breath. "My apologies," she said in her formal manner. "I am not sure what came over me."

"Fear," Brittany said simply. "I can't imagine what that must have been like. But please don't worry, Mandy… it was only a dream."

Mandy pulled her hand away and shook her head. "No, no, that is where you are wrong. It was not just a dream. No, no…" She sighed, and took a deep breath. "At the beginning, I found myself outside of the pink castle. When I went through the rooms, I found the room that Legolas and I dreamed about. And I was still in the pink castle when I was in the tower and when… all of that happened."

"What does that mean?" Summer asked quietly. "Mandy, you and Brittany have told us about the pink castle and all that other stuff that was in Mirkwood and Rivendell all those years ago, put in by some disgruntled security guard. You told us that… that the pink castle was part of that universe, was stored on the main controls, and then lost just days ago. And yet it is still here… what does it mean?"

Mandy took a deep breath. "It means that we have finally found where the pink castle went." She gave a strange smile. "It was first in the Middle-earth alternate universe. Now, if I remember the name correctly, it is in the Forbidden Forest, right next door to Hogwarts in the alternate Harry Potter universe."


	15. Chapter 15

Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait. It looks like now we can respond to reviews; woo! So, if any of you have any questions, or comments, or anything, I'll be able to respond. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Only fivemore, I think, and then perhaps an epilogue. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter Fifteen

Once again the loud silence invaded the bedroom when Mandy revealed her knowledge to the group. To say that they were surprised would be a large understatement.

Closing her gaping mouth, Brittany dumbly shook her head. Finally, she found her voice. "_What?_"

"That's impossible!" Alex immediately shouted. "How in the world could a pink castle end up in the Forbidden Forest? I mean, you can't just put a castle into that forest! That's just, just, just… just impossible!"

"It is completely possible," Mandy said calmly. "This certain HP universe is just one of many universes. Our small Rivendell and Mirkwood universe was one of many alternate universes… the question, however, is if this Harry Potter universe is an alternate universe or the actual, real canonical HP universe."

"I'd say an alternate universe," piped in Abs. "There is no way anyone could get anything in the real Forbidden Forest. And the flying dementers is totally movie verse, I think." Alex nodded in agreement.

"You think you could explain to us who don't know Harry Potter what the heck is up?" Becky put in, slight annoyance in her voice.

"Yes, just be a bit patient, if you would," Mandy retorted in her usual tone of voice. "I want to get dressed; there's no way I'm going back to sleep tonight. So get out and let me have some privacy." Brittany rolled her eyes, but obeyed, and her friends followed. Aragorn and Legolas lingered for one moment.

"A moment, if you would, Mandy," Aragorn said quietly.

"What?" she snapped at him.

"You are still not well," he said.

"I'm fine," she retorted quickly. Aragorn simply raised an eyebrow, though Legolas remained impassive. She rolled her eyes, and then sighed.

"Look, guys, I'll be fine… just… give me a while, ok? I've never been so… so frightened before in my life. Don't worry, I'll be fine," she ended with a small smile. "Now shoo, I need to get dressed." They nodded, and they left the room, shutting the door behind them.

Once they were out of the room, Legolas turned to his friend. "Something still bothers you, mellon nin," he stated.

Aragorn glanced at the elf. "And you know what that is."

Legolas nodded. "Our return to Middle-earth."

The ranger confirmed this with a short nod. "Why did we return, Legolas? How is it possible that our bodies are in two places at once, and in two different states of condition? Here I feel well, but when I awoke in Arda, I felt…"

"As if you had been trampled upon by trolls?" the elf suggested.

"Something like that," he said with a wry grin.

Legolas gave a helpless shrug. "Honestly, my friend, I know not. But what still concerns me is what Mandy told you a while ago, about a different course of events. Did she not say that we were not supposed to get captured?" When Aragorn nodded, the elf continued. "If that is how it is supposed to be, why are things still like this? What will happen to us if we reach Mordor?"

"I know not, my friend. I know not."

O0O0O0O

Nine figures once again sat around the living room of Mandy's apartment. All of them were dressed and fully awake, despite it being early in the morning still. Mandy was explaining to them all what has happened and what needs to be done.

"The pink castle, a creation made many years ago by a slightly deranged security guard, was put into the archives of the Main Controls long ago. Two days ago, I found the pink castle, along with the security guard's other creations, gone. Now the pink castle is in the alternate universe of Harry Potter. The alternate universe system is very complicated; there are many genres of alternate universes, which just split up into more and more genres. Explaining it all would take ages. Anyways, to get to these alternate universes normally, we have to type in a set of coordinates that go with the universe into the Main Controls. But the coordinates are in the Head's files, back in the box factory where I work at. I need to get into the Head's files, find the correct coordinates for this certain Harry Potter universe, and enter them in to go to the universe and get to the bottom of this.

"Thankfully, as the technician, I have a set of keys that will let me in anywhere, so that is not a problem. It is just dodging the Heads that will be a problem-"

"Mandy," Brittany interrupted. "It's Saturday morning. No one will be there."

Mandy blinked. "Oh. Yes. I forgot that." She cleared her throat. "Well then… I can go and get this sorted out after I've had some coffee. Aragorn, Legolas, you two should probably come with me, as this highly involves you guys and we may be able to fix everything and send you two back home to a normal Middle-earth right there and then."

"What about-" Brittany was about to put in, but was immediately interrupted by Mandy.

"No. You are not coming. And no buts," she said firmly, and then turned her attention to Aragorn and Legolas. "Well? What do you guys- hey, is something wrong?" she asked. "You two look troubled."

The two warriors glanced at one another. "You were not the only one with a disturbing dream this night," Aragorn put in quietly.

"Last night Aragorn and I woke up in Middle-earth, once more with the orcs," Legolas explained. "We were made to run, and while I was running, I could hear shouting in my head." Aragorn frowned, and then nodded in agreement. "I think that the shouting was from this world, when Mandy was trapped within her own nightmare and you girls were screaming for help," the elf continued. "And the shouting overcame me, and then I woke to find myself here."

Aragorn nodded. "The same happened to me. I did not know where the shouting came from, though I knew that the orcs did not respond to it. But I believe Legolas is correct. It seems when we begin to awaken here, we lose consciousness there."

"And when you actually fell asleep there, you were either sleeping or you go into the Harry Potter alternate universe," Mandy muttered. "That is just weird." She sighed. "I need some coffee. But first, you two will be coming with me? I may be able to send you home there, to the real Middle-earth, with everything going on as it is supposed to be."

Aragorn and Legolas looked at one another, and both nodded. "We shall," Legolas said. "But tell me, Mandy… what will happen if you are not able to fix it, and we reach Mordor?"

Mandy lowered her eyes, and bit her lip. "I don't know," she said quietly. "Let's just hope it doesn't happen." With that, she stood up, and left for the kitchen to make herself some coffee.

Once Mandy had left the room, six voices of protest immediately sprang up.

"You can't just leave!"

"Not without us!"

"We may never see you again!"

"You've only been here a day!"

Legolas shot Aragorn an amused glance, and he simply raised his hand to stop the protests.

"We must go back to Middle-earth and resume the Quest. We cannot linger any longer." When more protests sprung up, it was Aragorn this time who silenced them.

"Perhaps we will see you again," he said. "But for now, we have a duty to Frodo. We need to solve this problem, get history back on its right course, and then resume our Quest. However," he said before any more protests could spring up, "we did not expect to see Mandy or Brittany again. Perhaps fate shall be kind, and we will see each other again. But for now, we have to do this."

The girls fell silent, and the looks on their faces were humorous and heart-wrenching at the same moment. Unsure on whether to laugh or cry, the two friends simply gave each of them a hug.

The room was very silent when Mandy came in, a sealed cup of coffee in her hand for the road. She looked around the room and rolled her eyes.

"The puppy eyes won't work, Brittany," she said to the teenager. "For any of you." She then turned to the two warriors. "Ready?" They nodded, and with a grim smile, she unlocked the front door, let the two step out, and then shut the door behind her.

Inside the apartment, there was complete silence. None of the girls moved from their positions around the room. Finally, Mari broke the silence.

"Now what?"

"It's not fair!" Brittany shout out. "She just expects us to wait? She acts as if… as if we were children!" In the eyes of many, girls between the years of thirteen and fifteen _are_ children, but as there were no adults around to tell them this, her comment was not argued against. "Guys, we have to find a way to get over there. I mean… this is Aragorn and Legolas. They're going to get into trouble. And as we are torture fic writers and readers, we know exactly what will come up, and when. Also, if they're going into the Harry Potter universe, we can help them there too. They don't know anything about it while we do. We can help!" None of the girls could argue against this teenage logic, and all of them nodded in agreement.

"But how?" Alex asked. "I mean, none of us have a car, and we don't even know where the place is!"

"I know where it is," Brittany said. "She has the address in her phonebook, and I've been there once or twice. There's just the little problem of getting there."

"Bus?" Mari suggested.

"I don't have any money," said Alex. The others nodded dejectedly.

"What about a taxi?" put in Becky, but then her face fell. "Oh, wait…"

They fell silent once again as they tried to come up with a plan. Suddenly, a grin split on Summer's face.

"Hold on, guys. I think I may be able to solve this." Quickly she rushed to the phone, and dialed a number. She waited for a moment, and then her face lit up. "Hi, April, it's me… oh, sorry, I didn't realize that it was 4:30 in the morning… look, I said I was sorry… no, no, I'm fine, I'm fine… yes, this call does have a point! I'm not waking you up for no reason! … I'm trying to get to it… yes. Well. You know how you owe me a favor? Well, I need that favor, now… yes, my dear sister, this favor cannot wait. I really need your help… I need you to drive me and a couple friends downtown… uhm… well, only me, Brittany, Mari, Alex, Abs, and Becky… yes, I know that's more than a couple… we'll all fit in, we'll just take mom's van… yes, we really do need to get downtown! … why? Uhm…" She looked to her friends for help.

"Say that there is LOTR stuff selling there!" suggested Mari.

"There's a sale of LOTR stuff!" Summer quickly repeated. "We have to get there before anyone else does! It's been all over the internet, we need to be first in line! … mom will be fine with it, don't worry, we're one huge group, and there will be tons of geeks there… yes, I've made sure it's not a dump, it'll be selling near Mandy's work… yea, there… yea… seven A.M.! No, we need to get there now, April! … five A.M… alright, alright, 5:30 it is. I'm at Brittany's place. Please don't be here any later! … alright, sorry for waking you up so early… bye!"

Summer hung up the phone and sighed. "She won't come until 5:30.… says she has to get ready and stuff, and that 'we'll be one of the first people there anyways'." She sighed again. "Now what?"

"Well… I guess we should eat something." Brittany said. "We may be gone for a while.

"Especially if things go wrong," Abs put in a bit gloomily.

"Let's hope they don't," Brittany said. "Let's hope that this mystery is solved today."


	16. Chapter 16

It took me 4 months to get this out, but nevertheless here it is. I WILL finishthis story... I mean, I have this all planned out and everything. Hopefully with summer nearly here, I'll be able to finish it :)

Short summary:

Since it's been so long since I last posted, I thought that I should do this... anyways, so far the current mysteries Mandy, Aragorn, Legolas, and all of the girls are trying to solve is the mysterious disappearance of fan fiction, why the history of Middle-earth is changing, and all of the weird dreams Aragorn, Legolas, and Mandy are having. Just this last night Mandy dreamed that the mysterious pink castle is actually in a Harry Potter alternate universe. So what Mandy, Aragorn, and Legolas are going to do is look for the coordinates for this certain HP universe in the Heads' office (remember, the Heads are her bosses of the box company she works in, and they ran the original alternate universe in "Writer's Mind"). Once they find the coordinates, they can find the correct universe for where this mysterious pink castle is, where all the trouble seems to be springing up from, and hopefully solve this mystery, correct Middle-earth's course of time, and get Aragorn and Legolas back home.

* * *

Chapter Sixteen 

Mandy closed the door behind her, and she turned to look at Aragorn and Legolas. Neither, however, were paying attention. Aragorn was looking at the bright lamppost, and Legolas was looking around at the dingy trees and the nearly starless sky. Mandy sighed impatiently, and Aragorn turned to her, raising an eyebrow. Legolas, however, seemed not to notice her at all.

"Hey, elf," Mandy bit out. "We need to go."

"You cannot see many stars," he said, completely ignorant to her comment. "And the trees… they do not speak. They seem as if dead."

Aragorn frowned, and also looked up at the sky. "Indeed. There are so few stars." He then glanced around at the trees. "And the trees look young."

Mandy exhaled, and closed her eyes in exasperation. She was not in the mood for this. "This is a newer neighborhood," she explained. "That is why they're so small and dingy. There are older trees around. As for not speaking to you… well. You are from Middle-earth, and this is Earth. Different places. And as for the stars, they're also there, but light pollution covers them up."

This got both of their attention back to her. "Light pollution?" asked Legolas.

"I'll explain to you in the car. Now come on, at this rate I'll be as old as Aragorn by the time we actually get there," she said sharply, and with that walked past them towards the direction of her car. Legolas bit back a laugh at Aragorn's expression, but both followed Mandy to her car.

Once they reached her car, Mandy unlocked the doors and immediately stepped into the driver's seat. Aragorn, who had already ridden in a car, stepped in with little hesitation, but Legolas was a whole other story. The elf stopped in his tracks and stared at the vehicle with open wariness. Mandy, who was still feeling very impatient, glanced at the elf with open agitation.

"Get in the car, Legolas. Honestly, I would not expect you to get in something that was dangerous. Hell, I wouldn't be in here if it were."

"It is well, mellon nin," said Aragorn. "If you wish, you can sit in the front with Mandy, or I could sit in the back with you."

"Nay, I shall be fine," said the woodland elf. "But are you sure-"

"Yes," ground out the young woman.

"Mandy," Aragorn glanced sternly at her. "This machine is foreign to him, and elves are quite unused to such devices as this." She exhaled deeply, but didn't say anything else. Aragorn stared at her, but she did not turn her head towards the Ranger and kept her eyes on the wheel. Aragorn looked once more to his friend and gave him an encouraging smile. "I have ridden in this before, and once you are used to it, it is not too bad." Legolas nodded, and glancing once more at Mandy, stepped into the back of the car. Once inside, he shut the door, and glanced uneasily at Mandy.

She strapped on her seatbelt, and looked at her two passengers with impatience. They (Legolas somewhat reluctantly) snapped on the seatbelt. Satisfied, she turned on the engine, and put her foot on the gas.

If she were in a better, less stressed mood, she would have been highly amused by Legolas' reaction to her car. Although they were only going a little over twenty-five miles per hour at the moment, the elf was grasping Aragorn's seat in front of him as if it were a life or death situation. When nothing drastic happened to him within the next couple of minutes, he began to relax. Finally, he was calm enough not to focus on hanging on and instead concentrated on the world outside.

He was absolutely amazed by all of the lights and colors. When they moved out of the apartment complex and hit the first street light, he glanced at the red and green lights with awe. Aragorn also focused more on them, for they were much brighter in the dark than during the day.

"Why do you stop when the light it red, and go when it is green?" Legolas asked when they passed the second street light.

Mandy, who was a little bit calmer now, replied, "It's a universal fact that green means 'go' and red means 'stop'. Not sure who came up with it, but pretty much everyone knows it. And, of course, the yellow is a warning for the red so there are no sudden stops or anything." She then fell silent, and both were content to look at the early morning view around them.

After a few minutes of driving on one of the main roads of the city, the silence in the car was broken by Legolas once more. "Why are there so few trees?"

Mandy shrugged. "They get in the way."

Legolas frowned at her lack of care. "Perhaps a few may, but here there are not many at all."

"Well, we needed somewhere to build our homes, our offices, our stores… the trees were in the way," she said with a shrug. "It's not as if there are no trees left."

"But still," argued Legolas with a frown, "they were here first. I shall never understand mortals and their incapability to work with nature."

"Look, elf," bit back Mandy, her anger and agitation rising once more. "I shall never understand elves and their need to be tree huggers, or their need to see the bloody stars. We're different, just get used to it." With that, she turned her attention back to the road.

Aragorn and Legolas looked at one another with incredulity written on both of their faces. Though they both have not known Mandy long, they did not believe that it was typical of her character to act so short and rude.

"I believe the dream affected her more than she cares to admit," Aragorn said to the elf in Sindarin.

"I agree; she uses anger to cover up her fears," responded Legolas in the same language. "We can only hope that she will manage to gain control of her emotions."

"We shall help," said Aragorn with finality. "And if her anger and sarcasm become out of hand, we may have to help her regain her senses in a more… direct manner."

Legolas nodded, and then suddenly cracked a smile. "As one sometimes must do with you." Aragorn chuckled and resisted the urge to retort.

Mandy, meanwhile, was so immersed within her own thoughts that she did not even notice the two were speaking in Sindarin; a fact that would have bugged her immensely at the moment. She was lost within her own thoughts; underneath her built up sarcasm and temper was an underlying fear of what was to come. Her dream truly had been horrible; was it a premonition of what was to come? Now, she was not one to believe in such dillydallies like premonitions, but at the moment she truly did not know what to expect. After they found the correct coordinates and went to the other world, what would happen? Would she meet up with… with the dementer again? She repressed a shudder and focused on the road.

Though the drive was only a few minutes, the tense atmosphere in the car made it seem as if it was an eternity before Mandy finally drove into the parking lot of the old box company. She was startled, however, to see that she was not the only person there. Right in front of the place was a blue Honda Civic; a car she knew very well.

"What the…" she muttered aloud. "What is Lena doing here in the early hours of a Saturday?"

Aragorn and Legolas immediately stopped conversing in Sindarin and looked at Mandy. "There is another here?" asked Aragorn.

"Yea, that's Lena's car," she said, pointing out the Honda. "But I don't see her around anywhere."

"Lena… is she one of the women who almost discovered me?" asked Aragorn.

Mandy nodded as she parked the car far away from the entrance of the building. "Yea… she's not one of the Heads, but she is one of my coworkers. It was her who came down to 'check on me' or something. Frankly, she's not that interesting of a person. Doesn't do much other than write fan fiction, and bad fan fiction at that. I mean, her writing is good and all, but her plots are completely mundane: you two get captured, get tortured, get out. I never saw the appeal in it."

"It is nice to know that you did not delight in our pain," said Aragorn flatly.

She shrugged. "I don't really read or write any fan fiction, as it is. I just maintain the files and the site. Sometimes I'll look over what Brittany is writing just to make sure she doesn't write any Mary Sues, God forbid."

"What is a Mary Sue?"

"Don't bother with it. It'll take too long to explain everything about it, and we don't have that kind of time," she said shortly. Mandy turned off the engine, pulled the keys out of the ignition, and then took a deep breath. "Well, we're here. I have to go find the Harry Potter alternate world files; you two stay here."

"You should not go alone!" Legolas immediately protested; Aragorn frowned and nodded in agreement.

The young woman exhaled. "Look," she said, "Lena is in there, and if we bump into her, that will cause all sorts of problems. If I'm alone and I bump into her, I can come up with some excuse on the wiring of the place or something. I'll also be faster alone; I'll find the files for all of the Harry Potter alternate world coordinates, and once I find it, I'll come back here." When they did not look like they were going to back down, Mandy suppressed the urge to scream at them, and then a small part of her rational mind came to her.

"How about this," she began, "you two just give me twenty minutes to get the files. I don't come out, you two can come after me."

Aragorn and Legolas looked at one another, and as if they read each other's minds, both nodded at the same time. "Very well, then," said Aragorn. "We shall wait."

"Good," said Mandy. She opened the door, stepped out, gave the two of them one last glance, and then shut the door.

She quickly went into the office building. The fluorescent hallway lights were on, showing clear signs that Lena was there. The Head's office was on the second level of the building. She didn't want to use the elevator because of the amount of sound it made, but instead headed to the stairs.

Quickly she ascended the stairs, making as little sound as possible. She entered the second storey of the building, and quickly went through the hallway to one of the larger offices. She took her ring of keys out of her pocket, found the correct one, and unlocked the door to the Head's office.

She flipped on the lights, and groaned loudly. The Heads were messy... very messy. Paper and junk food wrappers were scattered all over the room, the surface of the desk was not at all visible, and there was something growing in the old cup of coffee. Mandy sighed. What a waste of perfectly good coffee.

Thankfully, the file cabinet in the back of the room looked relatively clean and untouched. Avoiding a flipped chair and a few papers, she quickly made her way across the room.

Mandy opened the second drawer, and started scanning the labels. She quickly picked out the "Harry Potter" folder, and then started going through its contents. Satisfied she had what she needed, she closed the drawer and quickly exited the room, being sure to turn off the lights and lock the door behind her.

Within two minutes she was back inside and heading back towards her car, the Harry Potter folder in her hand. She got into her car once more and smiled at Aragorn and Legolas.

"Miss me?" She grinned, and then turned on the small car light above her. "Anyways, here's what we have." She opened the folder and started looking at a few of the papers. "Each one of these papers is a different Harry Potter universe. Just like the Rivendell and Mirkwood universe, each universe has only a few certain places and they are run by fan fiction writers in a certain genre of fan fiction. For example, this one here," she held up one of the papers, "is for... Harry and Snape slash writers."

"Slash? What is that?" asked Legolas.

"You _really_ don't want to know, trust me," said Mandy with a slight shudder. She wasn't a slash fan herself... frankly, she couldn't tolerate it if it was not canonical. "Anyways, each one of these universes has it's own set of Main Controls, just like we had in our universe in Rivendell and Mirkwood. Since we abandoned our universe, we brought our controls with us, and it's now in the basement of this building."

She then pointed to another point on the paper she was holding. "Each one of these universes have a certain place they keep their Main Control Panel. What we need to find are the universes that list the "Forbidden Forest" as their location. Can either of you read English?"

Both of them shook their head.

"Damn it," she cursed under her breath. "Well, you two sit tight and I'll look through these as quick as I may." With that, she started flipping through the papers, and handed any papers that listed the "Forbidden Forest" as the site of the Main Controls to Aragorn.

Within ten minutes, she had gone through the whole stack of papers. Glancing at Aragorn's hand, there looked to be a little less than a dozen universes that listed the site of their Main Controls as the "Forbidden Forest". "Well then," Mandy said quietly, taking the stack of papers from Aragorn, "this isn't too bad..." She then spoke up. "I need to enter these coordinates in the Main Controls to see where exactly the pink castle is. Then once we find it, I can get us there... and then we can finally solve this mystery of disappearing fan fiction, weird dreams, and parallel universes."

Legolas nodded. "I would like to find out what is the answer to all of these odd dreams."

"And why the history of Middle-earth has been changed, or so you say, Mandy," Aragorn added, glancing at her.

Mandy nodded. "And hopefully we'll be able to change it before it's too late." She took in a deep breath, and then opened her car door. "C'mon, let's finish this once and for all."


	17. Chapter 17

Sorry for the delay. I thought this summer I would be productive, but my muses thought that that would be a good time to take a vacation. They seem to be back, however.

Page breaks aren't working for me, so had to do something else. Sorry about that!

Only three more chapters after this. I am pretty set on what is going to happen, so hopefully the last three chapters relatively soon. Please stick around, and of course, reviews really _do_ encourage me. :-) Enjoy!

O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O

The three had made their way through the building to the small room in the basement where the Main Controls were. When Mandy had unlocked the door, the room looked normal enough, to her relief. She was not quite sure what she was expecting, but she did not want to be caught off guard.

Mandy went to the Main Controls, glanced at the first paper in her hand, and then typed out a long code. The computer processed the information, and then a screen popped up.

"Is this it?" asked Aragorn, looking at the foreign characters with interest.

Mandy glanced through it, and then shook her head. "Nope; this looks normal enough." She then typed out another code, and another screen popped up. "And by the looks of this... it isn't this one, either."

She then typed out the third code, and they patiently waited for the screen to load. When it finally did, she raised an eyebrow at the coding on the screen.

"Well, no doubt this is it," she said, glancing at the jumbled characters. "Everything has been completely thrown out of order in this universe; though it doesn't say anything about a pink castle directly, one can only assume that it is there, with maybe some other things." She sighed. "I should have figured. It is always the third one."

She looked at Aragorn and Legolas. "Well, you guys ready?" When they nodded, she nodded to herself, typed in a few more, complicated coordinates, and then stood back with a sigh.

"We should start fading and we'll find ourselves in the Forbidden Forest soon, or maybe even in the pink castle. Unfortunately this universe is so messed up with the additions to it that I cannot pinpoint an exact location in which to land."

Aragorn nodded, and then frowned. "Are you sure you are up to this, Mandy?"

Mandy frowned. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, there may be those... dementers you told us about," responded Legolas, immediately catching on to Aragorn's train of thought.

An unreadable emotion flashed across Mandy's face, but was gone before the two could determine what it was. "I'll be fine. Thanks for the concern."

Before either of them could respond to her, they found that they were nearly faded away. Suddenly, all of them lost their sight, and they completely lost consciousness as their bodies finally disappeared from the Control Room.

O0O0O0O

"Are you sure this is the place?"

"Yes."

"This place looks like a dump."

"Don't worry, April, I'm positive this is the place."

"Summer, Mom would kill me if you got hurt or something."

Summer sighed from her position in the front seat of the van. Her older sister, April, who looked tired and yet doubtful, sat in the driver's seat. Behind them were the rest of the girls, anxiously waiting for April to let them out.

They were parked just one corner away from Mandy's work, just in case Mandy saw them and sent them back home with April. However, if April was gone and Mandy was too rushed to send them back, they would be able to stay.

The problem was getting April to let them out. She was a very nice older sister, but could sometimes be a bit overprotective.

"April, don't worry. I am sure of this." April still looked doubtful, and Summer sighed. "Look, I'll have on my cell phone, and I'll call you back when we need to be picked up. This will be a day-long event, but we're a big group; we'll be fine."

April sighed, and then finally nodded, collapsing back into her seat. "Fine. Go."

The girls did not need another word. Immediately they rushed out of the van, and started running over to Mandy's work. April watched them for a moment, and finally satisfied that they would be safe enough, she drove off. It was too early to be up anyways; she planned to go back to bed and sleep for another few hours. Then she could continue worrying about them.

O0O0O0O

Mandy groaned as she slowly started to come to consciousness. For a moment, she had absolutely no idea why she had been unconscious in the first place, and was puzzled to find that she was on a hard, cold stone floor. She blinked, slowly picked herself off of the ground, and looked at her surroundings.

To say that the place was dismal would be an understatement. It was probably one of the most depressing places that she had ever seen. The walls were dark and looked damp, and the only light was a few torches that seemed to align the walls. She was in a hallway, and it was too dark to see how far the hallway actually went. She could see one or two doors on the wall, but they looked just as miserable as the rest of the place. Shuddering, Mandy stood up and absentmindedly brushed herself off.

"What a depressing place," she said aloud. She looked around herself, and saw that she was alone; Aragorn and Legolas were not with her. "Damn it," she muttered. "Where in the world did those two get off to?"

She sighed, and shuddered again. She was truly not sure where she was; Mandy was positive that she put in coordinates to land them near or inside the pink castle, but this place was certainly _not_ it. Even if she hated pink, at least the castle was a bit more cheerful.

"Well, I need to get out of here and find those guys," she said to herself. "And I certainly won't be able to accomplish that by standing here." She did not seem at all disturbed by the fact that she was talking to herself. After all that she had experienced, it would take much more to disturb her now.

Sighing, she glanced at the hallway behind her; it was completely dark, and from what she could see, no torches or any other sources of light. Frankly, she did not feel like going into a deep, dark hallway at the moment. Quickly making a decision, Mandy turned ahead once more and started down the lighted part of the hallway.

She came upon her first door, and stopped in front of it. She was not exactly sure why she stopped, but something was telling her that she should check beyond every door that she came upon. She was not sure why she should do this, either, but her gut instinct was telling her to do so, and Mandy _never_ disobeyed her gut instinct. More than once had it saved her skin.

Obeying this gut feeling, she slowly pushed the door open, and peered inside. As her eyes got used to the darker interior of the room, she started to make out objects on the walls. As she did, she suddenly realized where she was.

"Dear lord," she said, once more out loud. "I'm in a dungeon. I'm in a bloody dungeon."

O0O0O0O

Aragorn found himself on the ground, and in much pain. He was not sure exactly why he was on the floor or in so much pain, but he was sure that the reason was not very good. Quickly deciding that he would get nowhere without doing something, he slowly opened his eyes.

Dirt and weeds. That was the first thing he saw. Obviously he was outside somewhere, though where he was he was not exactly sure. He attempted to get himself up, but it was at this point that he realized that his hands were bound behind him. Resisting the urge to groan, he finally realized where he was: back in Middle-earth as one of the orcs' prisoners.

He slowly turned his head around to gain a good look of his surroundings. He could not tell what time it was, for the dark clouds completely blocked the sun. In the distance he could see the Ered Luthui at an uncomfortably close distance. Very soon they would come to the Black Gate, and after that, there would be no escape.

Pushing those grim thoughts from his head, he looked for Legolas. However, before he could spot the elf, a kick to the small of the back forced him to abandon his search.

"Finally up, you accursed tark!" Krimlug's ugly face came into Aragorn's field of vision. "Causing us a whole load of trouble, you and the elf! Can't go walking without passing out, and won't wake up, either!" He grabbed Aragorn by the collar and dragged him to his knees. An involuntary moan of pain came from the man's lips, and the orc smirked. "Well, hope you enjoyed the rest. We're close to Lugbúrz and there you will find no rest!" Laughing, he dragged the ranger the rest of the way up.

From here, Aragorn was able to see Legolas just beyond the orc, who was getting similar treatment from Ghâshun. He managed to catch Legolas' glance, which read annoyance, anger, and pain. He was sure that his eyes read the same thing.

"We go!" Aragorn heard Thaurkul yell out a few feet behind him. He suddenly felt the sting of the whip on his back, and his tired feet started to move once more.

O0O0O0O

"There are too many damn doors in this place," Mandy growled under her breath after she found nothing but another cell behind the seventh door. It was taking her much too long to look through all of these cells, and the iron doors were a pain to open. Thankfully, however, none of them were locked.

She went down to the eighth door on the other side of the hallway, and tugged it open. Taking a quick glance inside the dark room, she found nothing once more. As she closed the door, however, she heard a noise coming from the room right next to her. She went to the door, pulled it open, and then found something that was certainly different, yet not very relieving.

"Aragorn! Legolas!" She ran inside the room and crouched before the two of them, both of whom were sprawled on the floor, unconscious. The two looked to be in terrible pain. She imagined that they were probably back in Middle-earth; however, she did not know that the pain that they felt there would be etched upon their sleeping faces. But then again, she had not seen them when they were asleep earlier that night.

"Get up, guys! C'mon, I know you two don't want to be in there." Thinking that the elf would be easier to awake, she tried to shake him out of his sleeping state. Legolas, however, was unresponsive.

"Oh, come on, you guys need to get up!" She then tried to awaken Aragorn by nudging him and pushing him. "Get up! I need you guys to be up! And I know you'd rather be here than in Middle-earth right now!" Aragorn was still unresponsive.

"Ugh!" Mandy turned to Legolas again and tried lightly tapping his face. "Come on, Legolas, get out of this! Those orcs are probably not very pleasant, and I need your help here!" He seemed not to hear her.

"Damn it," she muttered. "Maybe some fancy words and elvish will help." She turned again to Aragorn. "Hey, er, Elessar, come back to the light..." She lightly slapped his face, trying to garner a reaction. "Come back to the bloody light already! Er, umm, tolano dango calag... oh, where's Brittany when you need her... I don't have any of this elvish down at all... umm... mellon! Mellon! Wake up! Don't make me do something drastic!" She sighed and looked at both of them. "Damn it, you guys, wake up! I'd rather not be here alone, and I know you guys would rather be here than there! Wake up!"

Suddenly, both of their eyes shot open.

O0O0O0O

They were running again, much to Legolas' discomfort. His leg was hurting him now more than ever, and every step felt as if a knife was being stabbed into his leg repeatedly. However, he could show his captors no pain. They would just mock him and make him go faster, and right now he could not afford that.

He could not see Aragorn, who was once more behind him, but here and there he could hear the flip of a whip and a quiet hiss of pain come from his friend's lips. Unfortunately there was nothing he could do to aid him; whenever he slowed down, the whip tasted his own flesh.

They were but a few hours from the Morannon. They were now heading almost due east, with the Ered Lithui very close to them, and just beyond them, the Ephel Duath. If he remembered the maps from Elrond's home correctly, he assumed that they were now on the Dagorlad, or very close to being on them. Very soon they would be within Mordor.

Suddenly a loud shouting assaulted his ears. Doing his best to ignore it, he continued at the same pace. However, it came again, louder, and more desperate. He could not make out any words, but he knew desperation when he heard it. He tried to ignore it, but the shouting continued, growing more desperate by the minute.

Suddenly, he found himself on the ground. He must have tripped or something.

'Elves do not trip,' was his last thought before he blacked out.

At that same moment, his eyes opened in the dungeons, staring up at a desperate-looking Mandy, trying her hardest to awaken them.

"Oh, thank heavens!" she said, falling down upon her knees between the two of them. "I thought I would never be able to awaken you two!" Legolas turned his head, and saw that Aragorn was lying beside him, also awake.

The elf picked himself off the floor, rubbing his head. He looked around the cell, a sudden look of recognition coming upon his features. "I have been here before," he whispered.

Aragorn also sat up and looked around. "We both have, mellon nin," he responded.

"You have?" Mandy asked, frowning. "But I know for certain that we are in this warped Harry Potter universe, somewhere near the pink castle."

"Yes, we have been here before," said Legolas. "These are the dungeons that I found Aragorn in right before we met you."

"Are you sure?"

"He is right," Aragorn said, nodding in agreement. "This is definitely one of the cells that I found myself in in that dream so many years ago."

"Well, only a couple of years for me," said Mandy absentmindedly. She looked around, frowning and taking that new piece of information into account. "These are the exact same dungeons that were added to my old Rivendell-Mirkwood universe... one of the four things that were added by that corrupt security guard... the pink castle was also a creation of his." She frowned, trying to sort out her thoughts.

"Do you suppose, Mandy, that the pink castle was not the only thing added to this Harry Potter universe?" asked Aragorn. "Perhaps all four things created by this security guard were added here."

"_That_ would not be good!" said Mandy. "He also added a warg cage and a dragon's den. We do not want those to be here!" She sighed, and stood up, the two warriors following her lead. "Well, we do now know for a fact that the dungeons and the pink castle have been added to this corrupt universe, though by who, I am not sure. We can only hope that the warg cage and the dragon's den haven't been added as well, and if they have, that we don't bump into them."

Aragorn and Legolas nodded, and Mandy gave them a grim smile. "Well, guys... I suppose that now you two are up that we should make our way out of these dungeons. Do you remember the way out?"

Legolas nodded. "It was relatively simple finding our way originally. Hopefully the dungeons have not changed."

"I don't think they have. But if my suspicions are correct, these dungeons will lead up into the pink castle, and maybe there we can find the source of this problem and fix everything once and for all." With that, she turned around and left the cell, Aragorn and Legolas right behind her.

As they made their way down the long hallway, Mandy cleared her throat. "So, um... what exactly took you two so long to wake up? What's the situation in Middle-earth?"

Aragorn frowned. "It is not well. We are within hours of the Black Gate, and if our time frame is faster than here, then it will be even sooner."

"Great," Mandy stopped, sighed, and shook her head in dismay. "I heard one of you moaning too, which was how I originally found you guys. Must not be fun at all." However, Mandy was not looking at either of them; she was staring at the wall absentmindedly, deep within her own thoughts. She was probably not even aware of what she was saying to them. Aragorn and Legolas stopped, glanced at one another, and looked at her worriedly. Ever since her disturbing dream but a few hours ago, the woman had been staring off absentmindedly much too often and going deep into her thoughts. The two were worried for her.

"Mandy, are you truly all right?" Legolas asked. "You have not been acting yourself ever since you had that dream."

"Yes, yes, I'm fine," she said quickly, not even looking at him. "It's just that..." She sighed, and turned further away from the two of them. However, her contemplative look immediately turned into a frown. "What in the world...?" Mandy stopped mid-sentence as she stared at something on the wall. "What is that?" Her companions looked at what had caught her gaze, and saw that there was the script of the One Ring etched onto the wall and glowing a faint pink color. Mandy slowly approached it, staring at it with a strange look on her face. She gradually brought up her hand to touch it.

He was not sure why, but Legolas felt that she should not do that under any circumstances. "Mandy, don't!" he cried. However, it was too late.

The second her hand touched the faint pink script, the floor under her suddenly disappeared. Mandy screamed, but before Aragorn or Legolas could reach her, she had vanished into a dark hole and the floor had already come back up once more.

Mandy was gone.

O0O0O0O

"I thought she'd never let us go," muttered Brittany.

"Yea, my sister can be a little bit overprotective," said Summer with a shrug. "Anyways, where are we supposed to be going?"

"Basement," said Brittany as she opened the front door of the building. "Heh, Mandy forgot to lock the door behind her. It really shows how messed up she is now."

"Messed up? Why?" asked Becky.

"That dream," said Brittany with a slight shudder. "I know you don't know anything about Harry Potter, but a dementer is pretty much as bad as a Ringwraith. The two have been compared quite often, actually."

"And from what she described, she was given a Dementer's Kiss," said Alex as she walked through the door. "What happens is that your soul is sucked out of you... a fate worse than death."

"Like when you turn into a wraith; a fate worse than death," explained Summer, the last person to enter through the door.

"Yea," Brittany nodded. "So I can't blame her for being so messed up." She sighed. "Well, let's go, guys. The elevator is near the end of this hall, and we'll just go to the basement."

The six teenage girls headed down the hallway, went down the elevator, and quickly made their way through the basement to the small room that had the Main Controls. Brittany opened the door and flipped on the lights in the small room, and found the large computer on, just as she had expected. The group crowded together in the small room in front of the large console and looked up at it.

"So... what exactly is this?" asked Abs as she looked the huge computer up and down.

"These are the Main Controls for the old Rivendell-Mirkwood universe that I explained to you guys last afternoon when Legolas first came," said Brittany. "This made that place pretty much exist. From what I understand, each alternate fan fiction universe has one to make their place run. The Main Controls stores all the data of that universe, and, if you want, you can access the data of other universes as well by entering that universe's coordinates. And, naturally, you can also visit that universe. You can't actually change anything in that specific universe until you find the Main Controls in that place. Now, hopefully Mandy left up the coordinates for the Harry Potter universe that she, Aragorn, and Legolas are in right now."

Brittany went to the large console and typed in a few things. She looked at the large screen and blinked in surprise. "Well, it looks like Mandy did, and man... wow. This universe is really messed up." The other girls looked at the screen, and though they were not sure what to look for, they could see what she meant. Random letters, numbers, and other symbols were all over the screen, and pretty much all of the data looked all jumbled up, as if it had been tossed into a washing machine.

"Well, if there is any universe that there is a pink castle, then this would be it." Brittany typed in a couple more things, and then grinned in success. "All right. We should be going near where Mandy and the guys landed. Now, we're going to start to fade soon."

"Fade?" asked Mari, looking at her body. "Wow, that sounds so cool!"

"And a bit creepy," added Summer, looking at her own body.

"Well, that's how it works," Brittany said with a shrug. "We fade and we should land in the other universe. According to Mandy, sometimes you arrive unconscious, and sometimes you don't. Hopefully at least one of us will be up so she can wake up everyone else and we can catch up with Mandy."

"Wake up unconscious in a warped universe? I hope it isn't me," Becky said. "Sounds a bit freaky."

"Yea... oh my god, my legs are disappearing!" Summer said, looking at her legs in horror.

"Ah, we're fading now," Brittany said, looking at her friends with amusement. "It feels a bit weird, but after a while you get used to it."

"I'm never doing this again!" Alex screamed at her. "This is creepy!"

Brittany just grinned. "See you on the other side!"

Within less than a minute, all of the girls had faded away, and the room was empty once more.

O0O0O0O

Brittany groaned as she came to consciousness. She looked around, and was dismayed to find herself in complete darkness. As she got to her knees, she tried to wave her hand across her face. Absolutely nothing.

"This is just great," she muttered under her breath.

"Brittany? Is that you?"

"Becky?"

"Yea, it's me." A pause. "You know, on second thought, I think I would have rather been unconscious."

"Haha."

"... is anyone else here?"

"I'm not sure. Here, just try crawling around until you find someone else."

"Okay."

There were a few moments of silence, until suddenly there was a large shout from both of the girls.

"Ouch!"

"Crap!"

"That was me you bumped into, Brittany!"

"I think you bumped into me." Brittany rubbed her head on the spot that had connected with Becky's own head. "Did you find anyone else?"

"No."

"Hello?" A different voice rang through the dark.

"What?"

"Who's there?"

"Brittany and Becky," Becky shouted out. "Who's that?"

"Summer."

"Oh."

"Try crawling over to us!" Brittany shouted in the dark. "Just follow my voice."

"Keep talking!" Summer shouted.

"Oh, all right, umm... ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer-"

"I said to shout, not sing!"

"Singing's easier!"

"But- shit! There's a body here!"

"It's probably someone else. Wake them up, Summer!"

"All right, all right... okay, here's the arm, face... ah, shoulder. Hey, wake up! Wake up Mari, Abs, or Alex! Wake up!"

"It's Mari," a fourth voice came through the dark. "Stop shaking me, Summer. I'm up."

"Good."

"Hey Mari!"

"Becky?"

"And Brittany, too. Get up and crawl over to us."

"Okay." A pause. "Where are we?"

"I don't know," Brittany's voice shot through the dark. "I'm pretty sure we're in the Harry Potter world-"

"Pretty sure?"

"Well, almost-exactly sure."

"Uh huh."

"Ok, that's my hand you're touching," Becky's voice shouted through the dark.

"I'm not touching anyone's hand," Mari said.

"Not me, either," Summer said.

"Brittany?"

"No."

Becky screamed and started crawling away. A young female voice started giggling suddenly.

"Abs!"

"I'm sorry, Becky, but I had to do it! I knew you'd panic!"

"How long have you been up, Abs?" Brittany asked.

"I got up right after Becky," she said. "I didn't find Alex, though."

"Ok, I'm touching someone's shoe."

"That's mine," Abs said to Mari.

"Ah, good."

So finally, after much struggling through the dark, the five girls had managed to find one another. Even though their eyes should have gotten used to the dark at this point, they could still see nothing.

"So, do any of you know where Alex is?" Brittany asked. Four consecutive negative answers was her response. "Great. Well... one of us needs to find her."

"Should we split up and search the whole place?"

"Well, I suppose it would be faster... just be careful not to bonk into anybody. It hurts. And we need to crawl, too. I don't think it would be very good if one of us crushed Alex. When someone finds her, just shout out."

"No one needs to do any finding. I'm over here."

"Alex!" Mari shouted out. "Where are you?"

"Near the wall of this place."

"There's a wall?"

"Yea. Stone wall, too."

"Ok, well, just follow our voices."

"Our voices?" Becky asked. "I don't feel like shouting. My throat hurts."

"Wimp," Abs said.

"Am not!"

"Actually, you are," Summer pointed out.

"Well, I wasn't the one hiding from Legolas!"

"Hey! After the things I said, I thought he was going to kill me!"

"He's too nice and perfect to kill!"

There was a silence while Becky processed what she just said. "Well... other than bad guys, of course."

"Uh huh." One could tell by Summer's voice that she was unconvinced.

"Thanks for providing the sound, guys," Alex's voice was now right next to them. "With your screaming I found you all right away."

"Glad we could be of service," Becky's voice was dripping with sarcasm. Alex probably shot her a large grin, but as it was pitch black, no one saw it.

"Okay... now what?" Mari asked.

"Well... I guess we should get up," said Brittany. "We won't get anywhere otherwise."

"Guys, I think I'm hallucinating."

"What?"

"I see a light."

"What?"

"No, wait, you aren't hallucinating. I see it too."

"Yea! I see it too. And it's getting a bit brighter." Brittany squinted. With the little lighting, she could finally see her five friends. They looked at one another, and as if on cue, they all stood up.

The light started getting brighter and brighter. Slowly the girls started to approach the direction it was coming from. Suddenly, they felt a large heat wave, followed by a bunch of smoke.

"Is there a fire down here or something?" asked Summer, covering up her mouth and nose.

"I'm not sure..." Brittany tried to look as far as she could down the dark stone hallway they were in. The source of light was coming closer and closer. Suddenly, she paled.

"Guys... I think that's not just fire..."

Abs, who was also squinting, suddenly shrieked. "Dragon!"

"What?" Summer yelled.

"_Run_!" Brittany screamed.

The girls immediately turned the other way and fled, screaming.


	18. Chapter 18

So. The muses died a painful death, and then came back to life with this story. Yes, I still plan on finishing it :P

* * *

Chapter Eighteen

She was falling. Well, perhaps _falling_ was not the correct term; _sliding_ would be more appropriate. After the floor had disappeared under her, she had immediately found herself in a very slippery chute that was all but impossible to stop in. Mandy was going down this slide at a steep angle, and she kept her arms to her sides so she would not scratch them on the way down.

After sliding through complete darkness for not even a minute, and going through many twists and turns, she saw a light at the end of the chute. The slide was now going nearly horizontal, and she was slowing down. As the light became brighter, she slowed more and more. Finally, she came to the end of the slide, and she had to blink at the onslaught of light. Once her eyes became used to the light, she completely and utterly stilled.

'_This is not good_,' a small voice in the back of her mind calmly informed her.

For, you see, the chute had finally ended in a very large cage in an even larger room. The room was aligned with dozens of torches, which clearly lit the cage... and what was inside it.

Sleeping in the corner of the large cage on a large pile of hay was a smelly, disgusting, and very dangerous warg.

'_Great. I found the warg cage._'

O0O0O0O0O

Aragorn cursed vehemently under his breath as he tried to activate the trap door. It would not open no matter how much they pushed the glowing pink ring script, or how hard they tried to push it open. It just would not budge.

"This is not working," Legolas said grimly.

"So I can see," Aragorn said, sighing deeply. "Nothing works."

"Well, she must be somewhere in this dungeon," Legolas pointed out. "We should try searching for her in the lower levels." Aragorn nodded in agreement. "If I recall correctly, the stairs are at the end of this hallway. There should be some that lead down," Legolas added.

"Let us go, then," Aragorn said, picking himself up from the ground. "The sooner we find Mandy, the better."

The two quickly made their way down the hallway, speaking very little. They did want to find Mandy soon, just in case she was in some sort of trouble. These dungeons also spoke of danger. They wished to leave them as soon as possible. And, of course, their time to solve this mystery was slowly running out as they were coming closer and closer to Mordor.

They came to the end of the hallway, where there was a door. Aragorn opened it, and they saw a narrow spiraling staircase leading both up and down.

"I remember this," said Aragorn. "Did we not ascend these stairs to get to that odd Rivendell?"

"Yes," said Legolas. "But these stairs should now lead up to the pink castle instead, if Mandy is correct. I never actually went further down, so hopefully we shall not come upon any unexpected dangers."

"We can only hope," Aragorn muttered. "Come, let us be quick.

They descended the stairs, which was thankfully lit with torches. After going down a couple of stories, they came upon a door. Legolas pushed it open, and they found themselves in a lit hallway, very similar to the one just above them. However, the hallway ended about thirty feet in front of them and then split off into two directions.

Quickly making their way down the hallway, the two stopped at the fork of the hallway. Legolas frowned. "Which way should we go?"

Aragorn shook his head. "It could be either way. We may have to split up to cover further ground."

"Is that really a good idea?" asked Legolas. "What if you stumble upon trouble? You don't have any means to defend yourself," he pointed out.

"I am well aware of that," Aragorn retorted, but he realized that Legolas had a point. If one of them came upon something dangerous, the other may never know. "How about this: we split up and meet back at this spot in a quarter of an hour. If the other does not show up five minutes after the designated time, assume the worst and go after him with caution."

"I like it not, but I accept," said Legolas with a sigh. "We will hopefully find Mandy faster that way.

"Very well," Aragorn nodded. "I shall take the right side." He started to turn down the hallway when Legolas stopped him.

"Wait!" Legolas unsheathed one of his knives and handed it to the Ranger. "Just in case."

Aragorn bowed his head in thanks. "_Le hannon, mellon nin_," he muttered. With one last look at the elf, Aragorn started down the right passageway. Legolas looked at his back for a few more moments until he, too, left the fork and went down the left passageway.

O0O0O0O0O

Mandy was breathing in and out as quietly and calmly as she could, trying to calm herself down. The warg, who did not seem to notice her entrance, was still asleep in the corner. After a moment of complete stillness, she let out a long breath. It was asleep, and would hopefully not wake up until she was safely out of the cage.

She looked more closely at the large cage that she was in. It looked quite a bit like a cage that one would see in a zoo. The cage floor was covered in hay, and in one corner she could see a very large water bowl. It went up around fifteen feet, but as the top was also covered, that was not a possible escape route. On one side of the cage, about six feet from the warg was a door. As she could not climb back up the slippery chute, and there was absolutely no possibility of slipping through the bars or climbing over it, the door seemed to be her only option.

As silent as a mouse, Mandy made her way over to the door of the cage. The cage door was parallel with the door of the large room the cage was in, the room's door being about ten feet away. If she did manage to open the cage door, but the warg woke up, she thought that she should be able to make it to the room's door before it decapitated her.

'_Let's just hope it doesn't wake up_,' she thought to herself.

Mandy was now at the cage's door. She tried pushing it open, but found it locked. Of course it wasn't open. Biting her lip, she thought for a few minutes of how she could possibly open the door. Suddenly, an ingenious idea came to her.

Taking a pin out of her hair, she straightened it out, but made a small part of the pin curve up at the end. She stuck her arm out of the cage and around to the lock, put the hairpin into the lock, and started fiddling around with it. She had heard about people using hairpins to break open locks many times; granted, they were usually fictional characters in books and movies, but she _knew_ it was possible.

After about ten minutes of trying to pick the lock, a voice in the back of her head calmly informed her that she had absolutely no idea what she was doing.

She asked said voice if it had any better ideas. When she was met with silence, she deftly continued her work and hoped that she was making some progress.

Suddenly the door to the room started to open. While it was slow to widen, the door was old and its hinges were rusted. A loud creak went throughout the room, and Mandy glanced nervously back at the Warg as it began to stir. She glanced back at the door, and couldn't be happier when she saw Aragorn beyond it.

He was about to say something, but immediately stopped when he saw her panicked glance. He followed her sight and paled at the sight of the beast that was with her in the cage. Quickly making his way across the room and seeing no keys that could let her out, Aragorn took her pin and began working on the lock himself.

"Thank you!" she mouthed to him, her eyes straying to the restless Warg. He looked like he would wake soon. The Ranger merely nodded, not straying from his work.

The next minute in that room felt like hours to the two humans there. Mandy was doing her best not to panic and keep her composure, while Aragorn tried to break the lock as quickly and quietly as possible.

The moment that the lock came free, the Warg woke up.

"Get out!" Aragorn said, throwing the door open. The woman immediately rushed past him and Aragorn followed, not bothering to try to reset the lock, knowing he would have no time. The two of them rushed out of the room as the Warg jumped out of his cage and after them. Mandy sprinted out of the room and started down the hallway as Aragorn slammed the door to the room shut.

The large animal crashed against it, nearly sending the door off its hinges. Aragorn held his weight against the door, and the Warg crashed against it again, almost causing the Ranger to fall. Mandy stopped and turned around to help him, but he shook his head. "No! It's useless, the animal is rabid and the door too weak! Run!" With that, he turned away from the door and began to sprint down the hall.

Too soon for comfort they heard the Warg break the door off its hinges. Immediately catching their scent, the animal began after them.

Near the end of the hallway, already heading down to them was Legolas, his bow drawn and nocked. He looked Aragorn and Mandy over quickly before turning his attention to the Warg, which he could see bounding for the three of them. Faster than the human eye can comprehend, the elf let off a torrent of arrows at the creature. It let out angry yelps, not dead but wounded and slowed by Legolas' shots.

Aragorn finished off the creature. When it was but five feet from them, he sprang in front of his two companions and stuck the knife into the Warg's skull. Legolas looked at his friend in slight annoyance.

"I could have easily finished it myself, Dúnadan," he said with a raised brow.

"Yes, I know." Aragorn took his knife from the creature's head and wiped the blade clean. "But it had annoyed me earlier. This was merely retaliation."

The elf shook his head. "Whatever you say, Estel, whatever you say."

Mandy let Legolas retrieve his arrows before starting down the corridor. "Nothing we can do about the Warg. Let's get out of here."

The two warriors followed her, and soon they made it to the staircase.

"I imagine we should go up," she said. "We're in a dungeon, after all. Most people have dungeons underground." Her companions nodded in agreement, and they began up the stairs.

A flight of stairs later Legolas stopped, frowning slightly. "I hear something below us."

"What is it?" Aragorn asked, closing his eyes and straining to hear what the elf heard.

He listened for a moment more before he came up with an answer. "Many pounding feet."

"We should go, then!" Mandy said, starting once more up the stairs.

"Wait," he said, holding a hand up for silence and listening once more. The woman sighed impatiently, ready to sprint up the stairs if need be. "I hear voices as well. And..." He suddenly frowned. "I know those voices." Without another word, he began down the stairs.

"What? You know them? Wait!" she sighed again, glancing at Aragorn exasperatedly. He merely shrugged and followed the elf. Mandy shook her head and continued after them.

A couple of flights later, both Aragorn and Mandy could hear the pounding feet. Legolas could now completely distinguish the voices and his frown deepened as he realized whom the pounding feet belonged to.

"You will not be happy, Mandy," he said ambiguously.

"What do you mean?" she asked, incensed by his vagueness. Soon, however, she could distinguish the voices for herself, and within a couple flights a large group of girls ran into them.

"Brittany! How dare you, after an explicit order-"

"Run!" she only shouted breathlessly, rushing past her caretaker and bounding up the stairs quickly.

"Fire!" Becky shot at them, not even bothering to stop and acknowledge the elf in her breathless panic.

"Fire?" Mandy frowned, feeling the heat coming from below. "You didn't accidentally start-"

"Dragon!" Summer shot out, being the last of the girls to pass by them. The others had not bothered to try to explain their haste, only hoping that their newly found companions would follow.

Mandy's eyes widened and she took one glance at Aragorn and Legolas before running back up the stairs behind the girls. The two warriors quickly followed, both knowing that they could not face a dragon as they were right now.

The group, though short of breath, continued their flight up the stairs while the heat from below followed them consistently. Aragorn managed to make her way up front, not wanting one of the young girls or Mandy to be the first to bump into trouble if they ran into any. Legolas kept rearguard, helping any of the group who stumbled or began to fall behind.

Most new floors had no doors to the entrance of the hall, only a foreboding darkness lit with little light. Aragorn avoided these floors, thinking them only part of the rather expansive dungeon. They had seen no windows as of yet, and he wished to be above ground and not trapped below.

Finally, many flights later, he came upon the first door from the staircase. Brandishing the knife that he still had from Legolas, he opened the door quickly and stepped inside. When he was attacked by a vision of bright pink, Aragorn hurriedly rushed the rest of the group in and firmly shut the door behind them.

All one could hear in the area was breathless breathing coming from the female lumps on the floor. It took many moments for them to regain their breaths, but when Mandy spoke, she did not sound happy.

"How... how dare you... disobey... a direct order. I told... I told you not to follow me! And... and you did, and... nearly got yourself... and your friends... killed! How could you... be so... irresponsible?"

"I... learn from... the best," Brittany shot back, chest heaving from her place on the floor. "And... they wouldn't... ever let me... go alone."

"Mandy left you children behind for a reason," Aragorn said with a raised brow. "This is a dangerous place. She did it for your own safety."

"I... know," Brittany panted. "But... I just... I just felt that I... that I needed to be here."

"You are all idiots with no regards for your safety," Mandy said, finally able to breathe normally. "I cannot believe that you all made it so far in life without getting yourselves killed."

"With all due respect... it's not everyday that... we meet a dragon," Mari said with a lopsided smile. "My life is... rather boring in comparison." The other girls nodded.

"As it is, we're here now," Brittany said, picking herself off the floor. "And we can't exactly go back the way we came."

"Do not think you are getting away with this so easily, young lady," Mandy said firmly. "And you all will do exactly as you are told, understood?" she said, glancing at all six of the young teenagers. They nodded sullenly. "Good."

"I don't suppose you'd have some... water, would you?" Summer asked, the most weary of all the girls. "That run really took it out of me."

"No, I don't. Now come, let's find the library," she said, starting down the long pink hallway with all expectations that the rest of them would follow. They did.

Mandy remembered the location rather well from the dream she had but hours ago. She was secretly hoping that they would soon find themselves in the main room of the castle so she could find her way there. Not daring to open any more doors after her experiences in the dungeon, she continued leading the group throughout the structure.

Within ten minutes of wandering around, they finally found themselves in the main entrance hall of the structure. Sighing in relief, she turned to the rest of the group. "I know the way from here. We need to go to the library, and from there a secret passage that leads to a hidden tower."

"More stairs. Beautiful," Alex muttered to herself. Abs put an arm around her shoulder in sympathy.

"Think of it like this: it's great exercise!" she said with a smile.

"I hate exercise," she muttered.

Hate of exercise or not, Alex and the seven others followed Mandy up the pink flight of stairs that led to the second level that was just as pink as the first. Mandy made a quick left and hurried on, not bothering to look behind her the whole time. She knew where the door was; her dream was still vivid in her mind.

Within the next couple of minutes they reached the library. The burst of color outside of the pink surprised them briefly, but they soon snapped out of it when Mandy did not wait for them and went to a nearby bookcase. She went to the bottom of the bookcase and pulled out the pink copy of _The Lord of the Rings_. Just as it had in the dream, the bookcase started to shift, revealing a secret passage as it turned around.

"The computer is up here," she said to the eight with her. "It is the Main Controls for this universe, and should have all the information concerning everything going on in here. Hopefully it will also have something on the missing fan fiction. I should be able to deactivate it, transfer the necessary files back to my own computer back at work, and then destroy all unnecessary additions made. I also hope," she turned to Aragorn and Legolas, "to find out why Middle-earth is acting up. I suspect the answer to that lies here as well. Once I find out the source of the problem, it should be simple enough to fix."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Brittany asked impatiently, a foot already on the bottom stair of the passage. "Let's get up this tower!"

With nothing else to add, the group headed up the stairwell in single file, Mandy (with Aragorn close behind) leading the procession and Legolas at the rear.

Soon enough Mandy reached the room at the top of the tower, and the sight that met her eyes surprised her more than all other events that had happened thus far.


	19. Chapter 19

Second to last chapter. The last chapter is in the works and I plan on finishing it in due time. And I'm still highly pleased that I have a few dozen readers still reading this odd story, including the couple that shot me a review- very encouraging -g-

There are tons of references here to _The Writer's Mind_. If you don't remember WM well, I highly recommend you reread it really quickly. It's not nearly as long as this, if anything. About a 4th of the length, actually, if that. It can be found in my fics on this account.

* * *

Chapter Nineteen

"Lena?"

"Hello Mandy." The woman turned around, not seeming at all surprised by Mandy or her companions.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Lena rolled her eyes. "What do you _think_ I'm doing?" She turned away from her coworker, typing a few things out on the Main Controls.

Mandy's face fell. "Oh, hell no... you can't be the one who's screwing everything up! You are just too, too-"

"Too what? Uninteresting? Uninspired?" Lena did not bother turning around to speak with her. "Not at all, Mandy, not at all."

Mandy eyed Legolas when he drew an arrow and notched it, but did not stop him. "Alright, then, I'll ask the obvious. _Why_?"

"Because I want to," she said simply, typing in a couple more things into the Controls before turning around to face the group. She seemed unimpressed by the threat Legolas presented. "What are you going to do, shoot me?"

"If I must," he replied, drawing back the string slightly.

"You know, that's not much of an answer," Mandy put in before Lena could reply. "Why in the world would you want to do... well, all that you have been doing? What in the world is your point? All you have done is make Aragorn and Legolas angst fans go outside and give these two a massive headache."

"You truly are clueless, aren't you?" she chuckled. "I shall tell you the story then, while there is still time. But first..." She turned around and pressed a single button on the Controls, and the rest in the room watched in horror as Aragorn and Legolas collapsed. "I can't have them jumping me, you know," she explained.

"What- how did you do that?" Mandy looked horrified at the sight of the collapsed men. The girls made various sounds of exclamation while getting onto their knees and checking the two for injury.

"It is simple, Mandy- I control this world. This alternate universe was abandoned long ago, but somehow was missed by others and never destroyed. I found it and put it to my own uses.

"You see, the Heads-" She grimaced in disdain, "-did not like my creations when I added them to their little universe. I found my handiwork quickly enough in their old Controls and brought it all back to life here."

"You- you created the pink castle, and everything else?" Mandy's brow furrowed and she quickly came to a new realization. "Then you were the security guard the Heads fired before we left their universe!"

"That is I," she said with a smirk. "You must understand, however, that they did not fire me for my beautiful creations. They discovered that it was I who brought Aragorn and Legolas to our little alternate world."

"So I suspected," Mandy replied, folding her arms. "You were part of security, and had access to the Main Controls there. I can't believe they hired you again."

"The Heads aren't the brightest people, you know," Lena pointed out. "They also gave me their keys for a while, which I copied."

"Explains how you got to our Main Controls this time," the other woman nodded. She could feel Brittany staring at her, yet ignored it. Mandy certainly noted that such casual conversation was odd in this type of situation, but she wanted to get as much information as possible out of Lena while she still could. "You also added the password to our fan fiction archives when you were there, didn't you? And you put in the blocks on the Main Controls when I tried to figure out the situation."

"Of course. And since you came through the library, you must have seen my collection of books."

"No questions on your hacking expertise, no."

"Good, you do have some brains in there. I was beginning to lose faith in you, Mandy."

"Horrors," she replied sarcastically. "That still doesn't explain a couple of things."

"What would those things be? I would be happy to answer your questions." She gave Mandy a bright smile.

"Why in the world were Aragorn and Legolas in my dreams, and why are they here?"

"Your meddling, Mandy, your meddling. I imagine your connection with the two beforehand brought on the dreams, though I cannot even begin to explain it to such a feeble-minded woman as yourself." Mandy bristled at the comment, but held her tongue as Lena rambled on. "As for their being here, you tried messing with my work. The attempts were blocked, but not without some effects. I imagine that they told you about the orcs acting oddly at some time, yes? A parody or two got mixed into Middle-earth, and that was your fault. And when you went in deeper, you caused them to come into our world when they dream in theirs."

"You were at work most of the time. How in the world do you know all of this?"

"Cameras are an amazing invention, Mandy."

The woman shook her head. "In the end, this hardly makes sense. How can a parody- a parody written by someone here on Earth- affect the real Middle-earth? Why has the real story changed?"

Lena chuckled, drawing everyone's attention. The girls' attempts to rouse Aragorn and Legolas had failed miserably, and while they still drew breath, they were lost to that world. "Oh, Mandy, Mandy. I can not only block fan fiction, but add fan fiction as well. Your interfering added unwanted fan fiction here and there, but that was easily corrected, and all of the fic in the original story now is mine.

"You must understand that I am a lover of angst, but recently angst in fan fiction has been growing dull. There is simply not enough action, not enough torment, and not enough despair. I felt that the original story, especially, was lacking. So I simply... added my own creation to it."

"You _what_?" Summer suddenly put in, standing up. "You did not alter Tolkien's perfect lore!"

"Hardly perfect!" Lena snarled. "Boring, uninspiring, and utterly lacking. The typical, predictable happy ending for all. It hardly cuts it for me." She turned back to Mandy. "To put it shortly, Aragorn's and Legolas' capture is now canon. Once they reach the Black Gate, there will be no hope for them, and they _will_ die. The ultimate angst story, as it should have been written."

"You are absolutely insane," Brittany said, standing up as well. One by one, the rest of the girls stood up, glaring at the woman across the room.

"Perhaps. In the end, this is my story now. Soon enough, Aragorn and Legolas will be in Mordor, and nothing will be able to save them then."

"Like hell you will!" Mandy snarled, and she charged at the other woman, the girls right behind her.

Lena pressed a couple more buttons before she Mandy pushed and tackled to the floor. She grunted under the weight, and when she tried to buck her off, she found herself held down by twelve other hands.

"You waste your time," she muttered. "You would have been better off leaving Aragorn and Legolas to their fates."

"Oh, shut up," Mandy growled, jamming her elbow into the other woman's back. She turned to Brittany and her friends. "You girls keep her down while I-"

"It is too late for you now," Lena whispered, chuckling lightly. "They have come."

A sudden chill came over the room, and Mandy paled when the first dementor flew through the window.

O0O0O0O

One moment he was standing across the room from a strange woman, and suddenly he found himself hanging from an orc's back. A sudden onslaught of pain interrupted any thoughts on the quick shift in scenery, and Aragorn could not help but moan. Unfortunately for him the orc that carried him heard the sound, and the group quickly stopped as he was dropped to the ground. It was a mere moment before Legolas was dropped right beside him.

He could not help but feel a strange sense of déjà vu with the situation.

"Here we are again," Aragorn said quietly to his companion.

"Aye, and yet we were not asleep. How did we come to be here?"

"I believe that woman Lena had some influence in it."

"I was afraid so. I fear for Mandy and the children."

Their conversation was cut short as the captain of the orcs came to their position. Thaurkul stared down at them dispassionately.

"You slugs are making this as difficult as you can for us, aren't you? Your constant sleep reeks of elf sorcery." The orcs around him muttered darkly as the captain revealed this. "No matter. We will reach the Gate soon. But for now, you're legging it!" Four orcs suddenly pulled Aragorn and Legolas up to their feet, pushing them forward to get them moving. Aragorn stumbled and nearly fell onto Legolas, but caught himself in time. The snap of a whip broke the air, and it cut into the two captives' backs before they began their run to the end of the road, and, unknown to them, the end of their hope.

"The land has changed," Legolas muttered under his breath to his companion. "The ground is harder and much drier."

"We are past the marshes, and tread on the outskirts of the Dagorlad," the man whispered. "We are close, very close."

"This dust impedes my sight and I cannot see far," the elf stated. "You know these lands better than I. How much further is it to the Morannon?"

Aragorn hesitated before answering. "If I guess our position correctly, it is leagues. Mere leagues."

"Elbereth," Legolas sighed, just loud enough for his mortal companion to hear. Aragorn said nothing, and the conversation ended.

O0O0O0O

A ring of expletives rang throughout the room as the dementors flew in. Those in the room who did not know the terror of these creatures soon felt it. Any hopes that the girls and Mandy had suddenly disappeared and they were only left with thoughts of despair.

The young girls immediately picked themselves off of Lena and ran to the other side of the room, away from the dementors. Mandy, in her distraction, was bucked off by her coworker and rolled to the floor. Lena picked herself up and hurried back to the Main Controls.

"Stop her!" Mandy screamed. They hesitated.

"C'mon guys," Brittany muttered, her teeth slightly chattering. "They're fictional characters. They don't exist." She moved first, and soon the rest of her friends followed. As one group they grabbed Lena and forced her away from the Controls, tackling her once more to the ground. Mandy picked herself off the stone floor and ran to the Main Controls, immediately beginning a stream of code to end these events.

Suddenly her body was frozen cold. She stilled, and slowly turned around to see a dementor. It was completely hidden in its black cloak, but she could discern a hole on its face. She started shuddering and she backed as far away as she could from it.

"Mandy!" Brittany yelled at her. "Mandy!" Leaving her friends to hold down a struggling Lena, she ran over to her caretaker, mindless of the wraith-like beings flying around the room. Right before she could reach the woman, another dementor blocked her path.

The young girl stopped and took two steps back, staring at the creature in terror.

"Remember, Brittany! It's not real!" she could hear one of her friends shout at her, though her mind could not figure out who it was.

"Not real. Not real. This place is not real." Gathering strength, she looked into the eyeless face of the wraith. "You are not real. You were created by an author in Britain. And her dementors don't fly. You're not real. We wouldn't see real dementors. You're not real." She closed her eyes and ran through the creature.

Other than feeling a terrible cold wash over her, nothing else happened. Blinking in surprise, the teenager turned around, and saw that the dementor did nothing to her for going against it. They had the feel and look of dementors, but otherwise they could do nothing harmful!

"Mandy!" Brittany made the last few steps towards her caretaker and then shook her. "It's not real, Mandy! Get back to work! They feel awful, but they can't do anything to you! You need to get over it- snap out of it, Mandy!"

Mandy let out one last shudder and closed her eyes before turning to Brittany. "They are not real."

"Of course not. Nothing was real in our Rivendell, other than what we brought from the real world. These creations aren't real either. They can't hurt you."

Mandy nodded, glancing hesitantly at the dementor before turning to the girl. "Thank you. You are correct. So logical of you."

"Thanks. Just ignore them- they feel awful, but we can get some chocolate later."

Mandy did not understand the reference, but nonetheless nodded and went back to the Main Controls. Brittany followed her, and they both ignored Lena, who was still being held down by the five other girls and struggling even more now that she realized that these fake dementors couldn't actually suck out their souls.

"I can't believe I didn't realize that when I dreamed of this last night," the woman scolded herself as she started typing away furiously on the Controls.

"You were alone, and you didn't expect it. And I had you here to help me remember that this place isn't real."

"What do you mean?" Mandy skimmed the text on the screen and typed in a few more codes. She was able to listen to Brittany and do her work thoroughly at the same time; along with being an excellent multi-tasker, it helped her forget about the dementors still flying about the room.

"Remember how depressed I was when our Rivendell and Mirkwood universe was destroyed? You helped me get through that by reminding me that they were never part of the real world." Brittany smiled. "You helped me get into the real world, and to appreciate the real world."

Mandy's lips twitched, but she did not look at Brittany as she concentrated on the screen. "I'm glad I was useful. I must admit that I am glad these can't do anything other than make us feel depressed."

"If you simply keep thinking logically, they won't be able to smash that, either," Brittany said with a small smile. "They crush happiness, not logic."

"And, logically, I have the brainpower and expertise to fix all the havoc that my coworker has brought down upon us. She may think she's oh-so-smart, but she did not put any passwords into her own database." The woman rolled her eyes, and for the first time, glanced away at the computer to look at Lena. "Not so clever now, are you, Lena?"

Lena said nothing and simply glared as the technician started sorting through all the mess that she had created.

"Lena did her hacking from these Controls... I didn't realize you can have access to the internet on Controls, that's useful... so I can easily unblock everything she blocked on the web." She then printed a list of passwords stored on the Controls and handed them to Brittany. "Just in case there are any problems... these passwords should unblock everything."

"What about Aragorn and Legolas?" Brittany asked.

"I'm working on it. I had to find the Lord of the Rings text on the internet first, and with copyright laws as they are, that was a bit difficult. I did find it, and it's been downloading as I've been taking care of the fan fiction problem. Once it has downloaded it's the simple procedure of replacing files, finalizing the code, and the two of them should be with us momentarily."

"Good. If they're going through Lena's story, they must be going through hell."

O0O0O0O

Legolas nearly stumbled once more, cursing to himself as he straightened and kept running. Leg wound or not, he was an elf, and had more grace and stamina than mortals had. If Aragorn could keep on his feet, he would as well. He would not give the Ranger any cause for worry.

Of course, their whole situation was a very worry-worthy cause. He did not know why, but deep down he felt that if they reached the Black Gate, there would be no hope for either of them, especially Aragorn. Sauron would never let go of Isildur's heir, and the elf felt that any torment he went through would be thrice worse for his mortal friend.

Legolas watched as the orc Krimlug shoved Aragorn when he slowed, his eyes narrowing when he saw the man wince from the touch. He could see that his friend's shirt was greatly torn and that his back was covered in whiplash marks. A bloody rag was a stark reminder of Aragorn's head wound, and his wrists were bloody from the tight cords that bound them behind his back. Overall, the man looked terrible and he doubted his friend could go on much further.

'_You hardly look well yourself_,' a voice in the back of his mind reminded him, '_and you are nearing your limits. Of course, the end is nearly here_.'

Legolas was about to tell said voice what he thought about such hopeless thoughts when the world suddenly turned upside down.

The elf immediately stopped and fell to his knees from the sudden shift, looking in horror at the sky below him and the ground above him. He saw that Aragorn had also fallen to the ground and had a similar expression on his face.

"What is happening?" Aragorn asked, wishing he could grasp at something just in case he started to fall into the sky below them.

"I do not know," Legolas replied, his eyes wide in disbelief. "This is unlike anything I have ever heard. And look, the orcs do not even notice! They keep on running!"

"They did not note our own stop," Aragorn muttered as the last of the orcs ran past them. "It is as if they did not see us at all."

"I do not think they did- Aragorn! Your shirt!"

"Wha-" Aragorn's voice fell silent as he watched his shirt mend itself. He noticed that his torn leggings were doing the same, and when he looked to his friend, the man noticed that Legolas' arrow wound was starting to heal rapidly. "Legolas, your leg, it- it is as if you were never shot!"

"Remarkable." Legolas brought his hand to his leg, rubbing gently over the spot, and did this for a moment before he realized that he was unbound now. "Aragorn, are your-"

"Yes, I am free now." Aragorn looked at his wrists in wonder; they bore no mark of the trials he had faced the last few days. "How is this possible?"

"I do not know, but I-"

Suddenly the world went right side up again, setting both of them off for a moment. Before they could get their bearings, their surroundings started to spin around them, blurring into one another. Aragorn and Legolas glanced at one another one last time before they blacked out.


	20. Chapter 20

Hah! I finished! Woot! Now all I have is one other WiP still up, and way too many lurking in my hard drive. But this one is done!

Any, uh, last words from my readers would be so very much appreciated... I do take anonymous reviews! Do be aware that I started this story when I was much younger, so the writing may contrast a bit between the original and this very last chapter. So yes, please, I would **love** reviews. Any thoughts, all thoughts, are appreciated. Thank you to all who have read, and to those that have, and will, review.

* * *

Chapter Twenty

"I think he's waking up!"

"Yea, Legolas is too."

"Aragorn, are you awake?"

Aragorn blinked twice before responding. "Yes, I am awake. Are we still-"

"Yes, we're still in the tower of the pink castle, though you missed most of the action," Mandy cut in.

"We were not lacking in this 'action', as you call it," Legolas replied dryly as he picked himself off the floor. He quickly noticed that Mandy was the only one standing; the others were all on top of Lena, keeping her down on the ground. Aragorn also noticed her, and the both of them stared at the woman evenly; she was unable to hold their gaze for long.

"When we left, the orcs were gone and we were unharmed; have you then stopped these strange happenings?" Legolas asked, directing his attention back to Mandy.

"Yes," she said. "Everything is basically back to normal, and when I get you back home, the story will be as it should be."

"Good," Aragorn said, glancing once more at Lena with an unreadable expression. "Do you know her motivations behind this?" he asked Mandy quietly.

"Oh, trust me, you really don't want to know," the woman replied, rolling her eyes. "Let's just say she's been in la-la land for too long."

Aragorn raised an eyebrow at the comment and glanced at Legolas, who simply shrugged and smiled.

"Hey, guys," Abs shouted from the floor. "Think we can get a move-on? This is rather uncomfortable."

"First we need to decide what we are going to do with my deranged coworker," Mandy said, raising an eyebrow at Lena, who was content to be silent at the moment.

"Why do you not put her in prison, at least for a while? She is dangerous," Aragorn suggested.

"I don't exactly have that type of power, Your Highness," Mandy said with a sardonic grin. "Besides, you can't exactly make a case for her, considering this whole place is some virtual reality that does not exist to most people. I'm not sure if killing off you two would work, either, though we may be able to get her on copyright infringement and hacking... besides," she added thoughtfully, "she is not dangerous, just a sad, strange little woman who got bored with happy endings and has way too much time on her hands." She glanced at Lena with a frown. "I remembered you used to like happy endings, Lena. You shouldn't have strayed from that path."

Lena looked like she was about to add in a word of rebuttal, but stopped when Aragorn and Legolas looked coolly upon her. She instead tried to push the girls off of her, but was once again unsuccessful.

"Here," Legolas said, "let Aragorn and I handle her. You children have done enough." The girls gladly got off of the floor, and before Lena could do anything, the two men had a firm grip on either arm. They pulled her off of the ground with little effort.

Mandy paced around the room a couple of times, a frown on her features, before speaking again. "Ok, I know what I'll do. It won't be much, but it will be enough so that she won't mess around in the LOTR fandom ever again. Let's get out of here." She went back to the Main Controls of the alternate reality, and beckoned the rest of the group over. "I'll type in the coordinates that will back to our own computer on Earth, and then take care of things from there. You have a good hold on Lena?" The two nodded, and she turned back to the computer and typed in a string of code. "Alright, hold on. We'll start fading in a moment."

Soon enough, the group did, and within minutes they were back on Earth, conscious and well. Mandy was already pulling out a cell phone and dialing a number on it.

"Hello... it's Mandy. Yes, I am sorry about the time, I know it's early and a Saturday... yes, I am calling about something important... yes. Mmhmm... wait, don't hang up! It's about fan fiction! ... yes, I fixed it. Yes. And I found the one who caused all the trouble... yes. Yes, it's someone you know, someone who works here, actually... yes. No, I'm not, I need you to come down here... yes ma'am, I have a couple files to give, and you should see her for yourself... alright. Yes, she and I will be here, don't you worry about it... Alright, I'll see you then. Ok, bye." She hung up, rolling her eyes. "Heads aren't too happy with you, Lena," she said to the other woman. "They don't like it when people mess with their reading addiction, as admirable as the attempt was."

"Oh, shut up, you bi-" Lena began.

"Silence," Aragorn said firmly, cutting her off. He was still rather offended by the whole affair and did not want to listen to her.

"Eh, I've been called worse," Mandy smirked. "C'mon, you two are going to help me bring her up onto the lobby floor and watch her until the Heads arrived."

O0O0O0O

Within the half hour both of the Heads were at the building, in a small office room that held them, Mandy, and Lena. Aragorn and Legolas had immediately left through a second door to go back down to the basement after the Heads had arrived, though Lena desperately tried to explain that they were downstairs. Neither woman was impressed.

"Right," said the woman that Mandy thought of as 'Head One'. "Just like you were going home all those times and writing, eh? I haven't seen any writing from you; you were just going into that other reality and using that computer to mess with our fan fiction! How could you do such a thing?"

"You abused our trust," said the other woman, or 'Head Two'. "Here we gave you plenty of time off to do writing, and you instead went about blocking the writings of others. This is a free country, you know, and that clearly goes against the whole free speech... thing."

"Yea," Head One said with a nod as Mandy thought about banging her head against a wall. "Against the First Amendment. Against the freaking Constitution and what this country was founded on!"

"You're fired," Head Two ended with a frown. "And no recommendations, either."

"Don't you try going to other companies that have access to alternate realities, either," Head One put in. "We'll be sure to warn them all about you. You are no good."

"But Aragorn and Legolas-"

"Give us your keys now!" Head One said. "Stop babbling such nonsense, and once you've done that, get out of here! I never want to see you again."

Lena stopped, and after glaring at the three other women in the room, slammed her set of keys on the table and stormed out of the room. They watched as she went through the front door and out of their lives forever.

"Thanks for all your hard work, Mandy," Head Two said with a smile.

"Yes, definitely. Big bonus for this month," Head One nodded.

"Thank you," Mandy said. "I do hope you follow up on alerting all other companies that do have Controls such as ours; if they are not, she may do what she did again, and I may not be able to track her down the next time."

"Of course we will," said Head Two. "We'll do it today, emails and phone calls and all. She can't have that type of power again... it was a terrible time without fan fiction, I'll tell you."

"I'm sure," Mandy said, trying to appear as sympathetic as possible. "Here is the folder with all the information on the abandoned universe she was using."

Head One took it and glanced through its files. "Harry Potter, eh? Figures."

"We'll send it to the Higher Ups, who will destroy the universe," Head Two said with a smile. "We'll also send them information on Lena, and they should get out the information to contacts outside of our own listings."

"Excellent," Mandy said. "If you'll excuse me, I have a few things that I need to take care of downstairs to wrap this whole thing up."

"Of course, Mandy, do whatever you need," Head One nodded. "We'll be in our offices if you need us."

"You are too kind," Mandy said with a sweet smile. She bid them good bye and shut the door behind her. Once she was facing the other way she rolled her eyes. '_I have more brains than both of them combined._'

O0O0O0O

"Thanks for waiting," she said to the group that was still in the small room that held the Main Controls and the computer.

"Oh, no problem," Summer said with a grin. "We were showing Aragorn and Legolas some of their merchandise on the internet on this huge computer."

"That 'bobble head doll' was... interesting," was the only thing Aragorn could say. Legolas looked a little lost for words.

"Well, that's enough now," Mandy said, smirking. "C'mon girls, outside. Say your goodbyes and then wait for me; it's too crowded in here for me to get them home safely. I don't want to transport any of you by accident."

"Oh, but I want to go to Middle-earth!" Becky said with a gleam in her eye. "It would be so much fun!"

"No," the woman replied, rolling her eyes. "No, it wouldn't. C'mon, say goodbye, and then get out of here. Wait for me outside."

One by one the girls said their farewells. There was much hugging and pouting, but at Mandy's insistence the goodbyes were short and soon enough, all of the young girls were out of the room.

"Well, this is it," Mandy said with a small smile. "I won't lie to you two, but I'll miss you. If there were men like you two here on Earth, I may be married. But... yea. We lack in the whole noble, dashing, amazing males category here."

"Such pessimism from one so young," Aragorn said with a frown. "Will you be alright, Mandy? You were not well when we were unexpectedly taken back to Middle-earth, and I worry that this dread still lingers."

"Oh, the dementers," Mandy started, surprising the two of them by laughing. "Brittany knocked some sense into me about those irrational fears. Don't be afraid of things that aren't real, right? As for my so-called pessimism, well, don't worry. I'm a cynic. It works well enough. In the end, all I need is some more coffee to help lift my spirits." She grinned.

Legolas smiled at the expression. "I will believe you, for you seem to me a strong woman- though I am not sure if Aragorn should be the one to speak about youth," he added with a laugh.

Aragorn frowned. "I am in my prime for one of my kind, and if I were as other mortal men I would be near death. I do know a thing or two about youth. Besides, you are young for an elf."

"But have seen many more seasons than you," Legolas said, still laughing lightly.

"Alright, alright, enough you two. I have to get you home." She turned and typed in a long string of code into the Main Controls. "Pulling you out of canon into this world was definitely not intended by Lena, but I am pretty sure I can get you back in... after all, I have done it before, though that time you were merely dreaming. I have no idea what this will end up like, though it should not hurt. I do apologize if you are an hour or two behind or ahead of where you left off, but that's, unfortunately, unavoidable. Just do what you would do in any normal situation if it ends up like that."

She ended the last bit of code, but paused on the 'Enter' key. "I will miss you two, really," Mandy said quietly. "I like life going its normal course, but these days were... unforgettable. And I doubt I'll ever see you two again."

"Perhaps fate will not be unkind," the elf said, embracing the young woman. "Fare well, Mandy."

Aragorn took her gently by the shoulders and kissed her on the brow. "Fare well. Do not lose hope in life."

"I should be telling that to you," the woman replied, startled by the gesture. "Such courtliness. I'll miss that," she said with a grin. "Now, before I go and change my mind, I'm sending you two home." With that, she pressed the 'Enter' key and took a few steps back.

"We will never forget you, or the children," Legolas said.

"I doubt you could; I'm sure they all left quite an impression," Mandy smiled. "Good luck on your Quest, and don't forget your words, Aragorn, about hope and all. Remember your namesake!"

"Aye, Estel, remember that," Legolas said with a smile at Aragorn's expression.

Aragorn merely shook his head, and noticed that he was fading. "We certainly shall not forget any of you, nor will I forget your words! Thank you for your aid, Mandy."

"Don't even mention it." With one last wave, the two were gone.

Mandy sighed, shut off the Controls and computer, and turned the lights off before exiting the room. There the girls waited, looking rather impatient.

"Took you long enough," Brittany said.

"There were some things that needed to be said," Mandy explained vaguely.

"So they are really gone?" Alex asked, sniffling. Mari looked like she was about to explode with a cascade of tears.

"Yes," Mandy said, "and for the better. They have their own world to save, and to build, and we have our own lives to get back to."

"But school is so boring," Summer frowned. "I'd rather go saving those two any day than be in school."

"I'm sure you would," Mandy said, rolling her eyes. "C'mon girls, I'm not sure how you got here, but call whatever ride that took you here to help me cart you girls back to my apartment; I can't fit you all in my car."

"There we can finish watching the EE's!" Brittany said with a grin. All the girls immediately perked up at the thought, and as Summer whipped out her cell phone to call her older sister for a ride, the rest of the group headed to the elevator and out of the building to go back to the real world and their normal lives.

O0O0O0O

Aragorn woke to the sun shining in his eyes. He heard quiet chatter to his right, and opening his eyes, he found that Merry, Sam, and Pippin were quietly talking to one another. He sat up, and after a quick glance at his surroundings, saw that he was at Parth Galen.

"Strider! Good to see you up once more," Pippin said with a smile.

"Though you really didn't sleep long, sir," Sam said. "Begging your pardon, but I thought that you looked rather exhausted and would take a longer doze."

"How long was I asleep?" Aragorn asked, amazed that he was back on the western shore of the river.

"Well, you fell asleep right after Frodo left, so not longer than forty minutes," Merry put in. "And Legolas, you're awake too."

Aragorn glanced to his left, and saw that Legolas was straightening himself. Gimli was a bit further, sharpening his axe and keeping an eye out on the eastern shore.

"We thought you were just resting at first," Pippin began, "but I asked you something, and when you didn't respond, we knew you were asleep, even though your eyes were open. Then Gimli said something about elves sleeping with their eyes open- I never knew that! You were always asleep after me and up before me, so I never saw that."

"Pippin, you're rambling," Merry said, rolling his eyes. "Legolas probably doesn't want to hear your rambles."

"On the contrary, my friends," Legolas said with a smile, "such ramblings are music to my ears."

Pippin grinned at Merry, and then turned back to Legolas. "Do all elves sleep with their eyes open? How do you do it? Does it hurt your eyes at all?"

As Legolas laughed and began to answer Pippin's many questions, Aragorn turned to Sam. "Merry said that Frodo has been gone for forty minutes; has it truly been that long?"

"Aye, sir," Sam nodded. "He left, and then you fell asleep without a word. Mr. Legolas, too. We didn't mind; you have been looking like you need it, begging your pardon."

"I am not at all offended, Sam," Aragorn said with a smile, but his mind was running furiously. Originally the orcs had attacked the camp a mere five minutes after Frodo had left; Aragorn remembered that he had sent the rest of the hobbits off before the brunt of the attack had come. And now they were not there at all; had they been delayed, or were they not meant to come? Mandy did say that history had been altered, but by how much? He was not sure.

Once Legolas was done answering Pippin's questions, Aragorn called him aside. Once they were away from the main group, he lowered his voice so none other than the elf would hear. "Do you remember your dreams, Legolas?"

Legolas nodded, eyeing Aragorn uncertainly. "I do, and they were both delightful and horrific."

"I dreamed the same," the other confirmed. "Laughter with children, and terrible orcs, and... different worlds."

"Then my dream of Mandy was yours, as well?" Legolas asked. Aragorn nodded, and the elf looked a little relieved. "I was worried for a moment that my dreams were more vivid than ever before; I would be concerned if I could not separate reality from visions anymore."

"I understand," the man smiled. "But it seems that we are experiencing what Mandy said was supposed to happen with our tale. No orcs have attacked our camp, and I do not think they do. I cannot be sure of anything else, for I fear that there is something lurking on the western shore."

"As do I," the elf replied. "We do not know the future, and that is how it should be. We must trust our instincts and follow them. We must keep our hope."

"With your hope, I hope," Aragorn smiled. "But I still do not know if I shall follow Boromir to Gondor, or Frodo to Mordor. Mandy was careful to not reveal anything."

"You will choose the right path," Legolas said with so much confidence that Aragorn turned to him, startled. "I am sure that you will. After all, the world that we were originally in ended with our deaths, and Mandy was insistent on that being wrong. Could it be, then, that our story- this story- ends well?"

"One would hope," Aragorn said. "But I doubt that the road will be easy."

"The road to peace never is."

"Wise words, Master Elf." Aragorn sighed. "Well, we cannot think anymore on this. The future will play as it will play out. Let us join the others; perhaps with them we will be able to make the right choice."

The man and elf joined the rest of the Company, and the rest of the story continued to play its course as it was meant to be.


End file.
